MITRE and Metro Announce Partnership to Strengthen Safety Management System

April 13, 2022 at 09:00 AM EDT

The Metro-MITRE partnership will advance safety culture maturity, improve safety data analytics, and establish an industry-leading Voluntary Safety Reporting Program

MITRE and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) are pleased to announce a collaboration that is designed to strengthen Metro’s Safety Management System (SMS).

Over the course of a three-year contract, MITRE will work with Metro to assess their safety culture, develop a plan to improve their safety data analytics, and deploy a secure Voluntary Safety Reporting Program (VSRP). The VSRP will produce data that can be integrated with other Metro safety information to continuously improve their data-driven safety risk management. Once implemented, the VSRP will lower barriers to safety and hazard reporting and elevate Metro’s safety protocols.

Establishing Metro’s safety culture baseline will formalize leadership’s understanding of where the agency is and where it needs to go in terms of maturing their safety culture. The reporting program will provide Metro employees with the ability to report safety hazards voluntarily and confidentially. The data captured from those reports will be analyzed, enabling proactive, data-driven identification and management of safety hazards, leading to a safer transit experience for Metrorail, Metrobus, and paratransit riders.

“MITRE is leveraging our decades of experience in aviation safety to increase safety in all forms of transportation, from the roads to space,” said Dr. Christopher Hill, director of surface transportation at MITRE’s Center for Advanced Aviation Systems Development. “Our collaboration with Metro will lead to a stronger safety culture and increase safety for riders throughout the region.”

“Metro’s vision is to become the industry leader in safety, and we intend to realize this vision by developing a world-class SMS,” said Metro executive vice president and chief safety officer Theresa Impastato. “This partnership with MITRE is a cornerstone of our safety strategy, and we look forward to bringing MITRE’s subject matter expertise to the transit industry.”

About MITRE

MITRE’s mission-driven teams are dedicated to solving problems for a safer world. Through our public-private partnerships and federally funded R&D centers, we work across government and in partnership with industry to tackle challenges to the safety, stability, and well-being of our nation.

About the Center for Advanced Aviation Systems Development

MITRE is a bridge and convener of government, industry, and academia, bringing together “the whole of nation” to tackle some of the biggest challenges of the 21^st century. MITRE has operated the Center for Advanced Aviation Systems Development – the Federal Aviation Administration’s research and development center – for nearly 60 years helping make U.S. airways the safest in the world. MITRE also manages the Partnership for Analytic Research in Traffic Safety (PARTS) between automakers and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in which participants voluntarily share safety-related data for collaborative safety analysis.

About Metro

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) was created by an interstate compact in 1967 to plan, develop, build, finance, and operate a balanced regional transportation system in the national capital area. Today, Metrorail serves 91 stations and has 117 miles of track. Metrobus serves the nation's capital 24 hours a day, seven days a week with 1,500 buses. Metrorail and Metrobus serve a population of approximately 4 million within a 1,500-square mile jurisdiction. Metro began its paratransit service, MetroAccess, in 1994; it provides about 2.3 million trips per year.