The head of the MTA hailed The Post on Monday for exposing increases in some serious subway crimes — and warned that the situation could spell disaster for the city.

“A New York Post story today finally reported on a painful reality facing the MTA which we have been confronting for years,” MTA chairman and CEO Patrick Foye said.

Foye noted that while overall crime in the subways was down, “as The Post reports, quality-of-life crimes and concerns are increasing.”

“We have announced we are hiring 500 more MTA police to help combat this problem,” he said.

“There are also 2,600 NYPD officers in the subways, and not only do we need more police to stop the decline, but as the article quotes an NYPD official, the ‘handcuffs’ have to be removed and they need to be fully empowered to address those quality-of-life issues that matter to New Yorkers.”

Foye added: “The subways were once referred to as ‘the canary in the coal mine’ for New York City crime. It’s true. Our riders must feel safe and secure and deserve a clean, timely, harassment-free ride.”

The Post revealed that there were two murders and two rapes in the subways this year through August, up from one and zero, respectively, last year.

Robberies rose from 309 to 327, felony assaults increased slightly from 229 to 233 and hate crimes nearly doubled, from 32 to 62.

A high-ranking NYPD source also accused Mayor Bill de Blasio of emboldening criminals to prey on straphangers, telling The Post, “The mayor has handcuffed the police in enforcing the quality-of-life crimes that we should enforce, and these guys know it now.”

Transit officials have called on state lawmakers to let them ban convicted perverts, thugs and pests from the subway system, and the issue came up again during the MTA’s board meeting Monday.

NYPD Transit Chief Edward Delatorre highlighted Thursday’s arrest of James Hunt for allegedly groping a 13-year-old girl who was buying a MetroCard at the 42nd Street/Bryant Park station, which was exclusively reported by The Post.

Hunt has a record of more than 60 arrests, with more than half involving sexual misconduct and all taking place underground, Delatorre said.

“I would say he’s a perfect candidate for someone who should be banned,” he added.

Delatorre also mentioned a 70-year-old robber he identified as “Mr. G” who “was followed by our teams on four separate occasions throughout the summer.”

“We knew he was in the system hunting for a rider. And each time we picked up on him, we followed him until he either made us or lost us,” Delatorre said.

“Finally, near the end of the summer, we did apprehend him live in another grand larceny, and we found he was also wanted topside, in the 5th Precinct, for another robbery as well.”

Delatorre added: “Each of those times he would have been ejected from the system or arrested for being in it, had he been excluded, prior to him actually victimizing someone else in the system.”

New York City Transit president Andy Byford said he favored “anything we can do to take out people like Mr. Hunt and other people who think they can just attack people on the subway who are going about their normal business.”

“These are the sorts of people who, frankly, we do not want on our system,” he said.

“It’s supposed to be a safe environment. It is a generally safe environment. But we should not leave any stone unturned in banning these people, is my view.”

A bill to let the MTA bar certain types of criminals from the subways passed the state Senate in June but failed to win approval from the Assembly before the legislative session ended.

Earlier this month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for lifetime bans on serial sex offenders, saying: “The definition of insanity would be to allow this conduct to continue unabated and somehow expect our transit system to improve.”