SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. - A motorcoach company here has filed suit against a rival carrier that reportedly pirated hundreds of its customers from bus stops as they waited to be transported to football games in San Francisco.

Silverado Stages Inc. named El Camino Trailways, as well as its sister marketing firm Accellar and the San Francisco 49er professional football team as defendants in the California Superior Court action.

The lawsuit, which seeks $200,000 general damages and unspecified punitive damages from each of the defendants, came after El Camino and Accellar owner Kumar Shah apparently ignored an order by the California Public Utilities Commission to stop marketing and operating the shuttles because it was not properly licensed to provide that type of service.

Shah did not return telephone calls seeking comment on the suit.

Silverado has for two years operated a game-day charter service from several communities south of San Francisco to Candlestick Park where the 49ers play their games. The company sells advance tickets for the service, but also picks up as many as 150 walk-up cash customers at the 20 stops along the six routes it covers.

The routes are similar to those that public transit agencies operated for a number of years before they had to give them up because of the federal charter service rule that gives private operators the first opportunity to handle charters.

According to the suit and a complaint filed with the PUC by Silverado owner Jim Galusha, El Camino this past football season began running buses along some of the routes just ahead of the Silverado coaches and picked up the cash customers who were waiting at the stops.

"Minutes before we got there, they took on the cash-paying customers right off the curb," he said.

He contends El Camino drivers told customers that their company now was operating the service for people who had not purchased advance tickets from Silverado and it would be doing it for all 49er home football games.

Silverado took the issue to the PUC, which issued a cease-and-desist order against El Camino, saying the company did not have the proper license to provide the service.

However, El Camino continued to operate the service for the final six games of the season and on some occasions even brought in buses from other companies to help, according to Galusha.

"Defendants intentionally infringed upon and slanderously informed passengers awaiting pick up by Silverado that Silverado buses were not picking up passengers," the suit charges.

"Furthermore, defendants actions caused confusion and uncertainty amongst existing and prospective customers, all of which caused Silverado customers to be pre-empted from boarding plaintiffs buses."

The suit said El Caminos actions constituted unfair trade practices in violation of state laws governing unfair competition and unlawful business acts.

Galusha said the 49ers were included in the suit because it is believed the team initially invited El Camino to begin operating its services alongside Silverado.

"They never really wanted us to operate the service," he contends, adding the team discouraged him and other private operators from taking over the service when the transit agencies dropped it in response to the charter service rule that was adopted by the Federal Transit Agency.

Jim Mercurio, director of stadium operations, which oversees transportation issues for the 49ers, said he could not comment on the suit.