Image courtesy of the Maryland Aviation Administration.

Today Paul Wiedefeld will make a life-changing decision. He will tell Metro whether he’s all aboard to become the new Metro general manager.

As of last week, the former CEO of the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport was the second-choice candidate for the position. Funny how things go. The number one candidate, Neal Cohen, dropped out on Monday. Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans explained at yesterday’s Council breakfast that, Cohen “did his own due diligence and came back to us and said he really wasn’t interested after all, because the job was much bigger than he thought it was.”

Another factor in Cohen’s decision? According to Evans, the media scrutiny that followed the announcement of negotiations between Cohen and WMATA played a role.

With 30 years of experience in public and private sector transportation management, including two stints as the CEO of BWI and a two-year tenure as the director of the Maryland Transit Authority, Wiedefeld has dealt with journalists for much of his career.

When Maryland Governor Larry Hogan fired him from BWI this summer, for instance, Wiedefeld saw articles in the Baltimore Sun and the Associated Press. He told the Sun of being asked to leave, “You do your best, and sometimes governors and [transportation] secretaries want to make a change.”

BWI’s international traffic grew 22 percent under Wiedefeld during his final year there.

Evans told the council that Wiedefeld remains interested in the Metro general manager position and today will have to tell the board whether he’s all in. WMATA has been without a top dog since Richard Sarles retired last winter.

Tom Lipinsky, Evans’ director of communications, said that Evans wouldn’t speak out about the search again until it’s over, which will hopefully happen within the week.