The long nightmare is over. Metro has hired a new general manager.

Metro’s year-long search for a general manager ended Thursday with the selection of a former top Maryland transportation official whose combination of financial and operational experience in public transit won him unanimous support from the agency’s sometimes-fractious board.

Paul J. Wiedefeld, a former head of the Maryland Transit Administration and Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport, has agreed to become Metro’s top manager and will be officially hired Nov. 19, the transit agency announced.

Chris Van Hollen issued a statement this evening on the hiring.