The vehicle, operated by Sky Express, was traveling northbound on I-95 en route from Raleigh, N.C., to New York City when it crashed at about 4:55 am ET Monday morning. Numerous fatalities and injuries have been reported.
The agreement recognizes the importance of coordinated transportation planning and advocacy as the two agencies work to expand rail in the area. Multi-jurisdictional cooperation is often cited by federal officials as a key to securing project funds.
The award is given to an urban transit system that travels over one million miles a year and has excellent performance in traffic and passenger safety.
Companies have worked together since 2000 when the order for the elevated dual-lane guideway APM system was placed. Known as Skylink, the 64-car APM system offers convenient passenger travel in either direction on the comfortable, climate controlled INNOVIA vehicles, connecting Terminals A, B, C, D and E.
Commercial operation is planned for late 2011. Among other routes, they will operate on the new Rhin-Rhône high-speed line scheduled to open in December 2011. The entire fleet will be delivered by 2014.
The system, installed on 10 buses, was activating the announcement either too soon or too late in the course of making a turn, but did activate at other times, such as when the bus was making a lane change. The agency began testing the system on March 1.
The strike force issued out-of-service citations to 127 drivers and 315 vehicles during the unannounced inspections that took place during the first two weeks in May.