DENVER Transportation planners for the Democratic National Convention to be held here late this month -- have wrapped up contracts for 250 motorcoaches and now have only to wait to see how their strategy plays out.

Events & Transportation Associates of Lakewood, Colo., said coaches from several local private motorcoach operators, a national carrier, and two public transit agencies will be used to shuttle the 5,000 delegates, 15,000 members of the news media and thousands of others who will be attending the four-day event, Aug. 25 to 28.

Some private operators have criticized Events & Transportation Associates handling of the operation, complaining they were left out of the big event or given short shrift.

But ETA owner Brian Clark says his company did all it could to notify charter companies of the convention opportunities. He said information about the work was sent to dozens of carriers and numerous brokers from around the country shortly after ETA was awarded the transportation planning contract in February.

After the new federal charter service rules took effect April 30, he said a second round of notices was sent to companies listed on the Federal Transit Administration Website list of carriers that said they were willing to take on work in the Denver area.

Most of the coaches and drivers that will be used to handle shuttles between hotels throughout the city and the Pepsi Center and other convention venues, including Invesco Field where 76,000 people are expected to hear Sen. Barack Obama deliver his acceptance speech as the partys nominee for the presidency, will be provided by Coach America.

Coach America said it will move about 150 motorcoaches to Denver from companies in its west and south-central regions, according to spokesman Tim Moline. The remainder will come from Arrow Stage Lines, Colorado Charter and Ramblin Express, all companies with Denver-area operations.

Clark said ETA was forced to bring on some buses - he said he was not sure of the exact number - from two public transit agencies, the Regional Transportation District in Denver and Roaring Forks Transit in Aspen because he was unable to fill the need for a required number of ADA-equipped buses.

A waiver from the federal charter service rule was obtained from the FTA to contract with the public transit agencies for the buses that are capable of transporting people who are confined to wheelchairs.

"One of our biggest challenges was filling the need for buses that could move people around who were in wheelchairs," he said. "We looked around the country to try to service them and there were not enough (private coaches) so we contacted the two transits for a small number of buses and we received a waiver from the FTA to do so."

He said while the buses are coming from transit agencies, they will be driven by private charter drivers obtained from area companies.

Clark said a second challenge was meeting a mandate by the Democratic National Committee that the coaches used in the operation use biodiesel fuel.

"In an effort to make this the greenest political convention ever, we tried to get as many coaches as possible that can run on B20 fuel," he said. "We had a hard time with that, too, but ended up with only a few that cannot use biodiesel."

He said the city has an amble supply of biodiesel available and he does not foresee any problems keeping the coaches on the road with the fuel.

Several private coach operators were critical of ETAs handling of negotiations and arrangements, and expressed disappointed with the way the operation came down.

Jake Byrd of Charter of the Rockies in Denver said he was an early bidder, but never got a response. "They never even sent a letter saying Thanks, but no thanks," he said. "And I heard that other companies got the same treatment."

Roger Riggent of Arrow Stage Lines, one of the companies that will be providing coaches for the convention, said his company had many more buses available, but was limited to 10. "We could have come up with three or four times that many but they said they were not interested," he said.

Meantime, Andrew Ballard, the head of transportation for the convention, said hes hopeful the plan that has been put in place will not only work well but become a standard for other conventions.

"Due to the tremendous head start on our planning, weve now had more than a year to not only build a solid logistical foundation for our convention, but to also establish and strengthen our relationships with the local community," he said. "From a transportation perspective, I want this convention to be the new yardstick to measure future conventions by."