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Reports: New York City subway chief resigning to consider run for mayor
The chairman of New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is resigning to consider a run to replace New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, according to media reports.
MTA Chairman Joe Lhota is planning to step down on Friday from his post atop the MTA, which runs the largest public transportation system in the U.S., the New York Daily News reported late Tuesday evening.
The decision follows Lhota playing a high-profile role in the swift restoration of the city’s subway service after the system sustained widespread damage during Hurricane Sandy. Lhota, who was been at the MTA since November 2011, previously worked for former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani (R).
He told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee's subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security earlier this month that the storm brought the New York City subway system “a level of destruction that is completely unprecedented in our 108-year history."
“Just over a month ago, Hurricane Sandy brought our system to its knees," Lhota told lawmakers. "Left in the storm's wake were eight flooded subway tunnels, two vehicular tunnels, 12 subway stations with major damage, some of them absolutely destroyed. We lost an entire bridge and a rail line serving the Rockaways and Queens, 15 miles of damaged or destroyed signaling and we had rail yards and maintenance shops under water and damaged."
If Lhota chooses to run for New York City mayor in 2013, he will join a crowded field of Democrats seeking to replace outgoing Mayor Bloomberg after a twelve-year term.
Bloomberg was initially elected as a Republican, but he subsequently left the GOP, running for reelection to a third term in 2009 as an independent.
