A subway-track inspector is apparently the new chief of the Transport Workers Union, beating a candidate backed by the leader who launched the crippling holiday-season strike in 2005.

John Samuelsen, 42, was a sharp critic of former TWU President Roger Toussaint, saying he was too close to MTA management.

Toussaint supported Curtis Tate.

Samuelsen said last night he got some 5,500 votes to Tate’s 4,600. Official vote totals were not immediately available.

“We are ready to face off against the MTA and no longer against each other,” Samuelsen said of the 35,000-member union. “We have a common enemy, and that’s the boss.”

He added that he “intends to defend transit workers” in the union’s legal battle to keep the 11 percent raise over three years that an arbitrator awarded earlier this year.