Photo by Tim Brown.

Looks like D.C., Virginia, and Maryland are one step closer to establishing a new oversight agency for the Metro system.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced that they’ve signed a memorandum of understanding that pledges all three will commit resources and staff, share information, and work together to set up the oversight agency.

“The District is committed to working with our partner jurisdictions and the new Metro leadership to ensure that the region has the most reliable public transportation system in the nation,” said Bowser in a release.

A previous meeting scheduled for last Thursday between the three was rescheduled when a thunderstorm caused a state of emergency in Virginia.

In the fall, the Federal Transit Administration announced it would assume safety oversight for Metro, citing “a number of accidents, incidents, and a demonstrated pattern of safety lapses and concerns with WMATA’s operations.” It replaced the Tri-State Oversight Committee, which had no legal authority to enforce any of its findings or recommendations.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has been pressuring the region to move more quickly to found the new agency, threatening to withhold millions of dollars of federal transportation funding.

“You would think that if you have thousands of people traveling on this system every day, from all these jurisdictions, that safety would be something that nobody would let fall off the table,” said Foxx. “And yet it has.”