The New York Senate confirmed Joseph Lhota as the Chairman and CEO of the MTA yesterday.

Lhota faces an imposing set of challenges at the MTA: an expiring contract with the Transport Workers’ Union, an unfunded capital program, and, of course, the operation and maintenance of America’s only 24-hour subway system.

TSTC has assembled a list of things that Lhota should keep in mind, now that he’s (officially) got the reins:

• Be a powerful voice for dedicated transit funding from Albany and secure funding for the last three years of the MTA’s capital program (2012-2014). The program pays for things like new subway cars, station rehabs, and the 2nd Avenue subway.
• Push for the extension of the recently-expired federal tax benefit, which saved riders hundreds of dollars a year in commuting costs.
• Work with the NYC Department of Transportation on new Select Bus routes, which have improved travel times for bus riders.
• Use technology to improve customer service—continue the proliferation of subway countdown clocks and release data so that software developers can create better transit apps.
• Expand the cashless tolling pilot program on the Henry Hudson Bridge to all MTA crossings.
• Expand the agency’s transit-oriented development program to help municipalities build more office, housing and retail near train and bus hubs.

Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign has also written a list of the challenges facing Lhota, including negotiating a new three-year labor contract in early 2012 and keeping MTA promises to cut costs by half a billion dollars. Elsewhere in the blogosphere, Noah Kazis (Streetsblog) thought that Lhota ought to have stood up for transit funding more strongly at his confirmation hearing, while Ben Kabak (Second Avenue Sagas) took solace in Lhota’s poise under the questioning of New York State Senator Lee Zeldin (R, C, I-Shirley).