WASHINGTON D.C. Public transit agencies across the U.S. apparently arent finished with their efforts to retain some of the lucrative charter work they were doing before the Federal Transit Administration clipped their wings with new federal charter service regulations.

After inundating the FTA with several hundred letters of complaint prior to the new rule taking effect April 30, the transit operators now are taking other routes and turning to other sources to circumvent the rule or find loopholes in it.

Some are filing requests with the FTA for special exemptions that would allow them to continue providing shuttle bus service to major sports events or community festivals. Others are asking for favorable advisory opinions from federal regulators, declaring that some of their special bus services are not really charters under the new rules.

Still others are pushing news articles in local newspapers that sometimes imply the FTA and private motorcoach carriers are to blame for transit agencies not being able to provide their usual shuttle service to popular events.

And, a few are calling on their congressional representatives for help in possibly making changes to the rule.

The FTA, meanwhile, said it has not received any formal complaints about the rule other than the filings for exemptions and advisory opinions, according to spokesman Paul Griffo.

Updating of the 30-year-old federal charter services regulation, which was mandated by Congress, came after a year-long rulemaking procedure that included monthly meetings between FTA lawyers and representatives of public transit agencies and private bus companies.

Private operators have complained for years that the existing rules were not working and were being ignored by federally funded transit agencies that were taking charter jobs away from them by undercutting their prices.

So far, the FTA has issued a number of exemptions to transit agencies that allowed them to continue running shuttles to highly attended major events, including the Indianapolis 500 and professional baseball games in Seattle.

In addition, it has fielded more than a dozen requests five of them from the Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority for advisory opinions from transit agencies trying to protect charter work that they have been doing for years. The FTA has ruled on five of them, saying that all but one appear to fall under the definition of charter in the new rules and should be offered first to private carriers.

They included park and ride shuttles to professional football and baseball games in Kansas City sought by the Kansas City Area Transit Authority and to the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles requested by Foothills Transit.

The FTA also said shuttles to an annual golf tournament in Silva, Ill., that Rock Island County Metropolitan Mass Transit wants to provide, and business convention shuttles in Queensbury, N.Y., that Greater Glens Falls Transit wants to operate appear to be charters as well.

However, the agency said Rock Island could run the golf shuttles if it initiated the service on its own and it was not sought by the event sponsors and Glens Falls could provide the convention shuttles if it charged its regular transit fare and did not negotiate a price with the businesses holding the conventions.

The FTA also issued a favorable opinion on one of the Rochester-Genesee requests, saying the agency could contract with the county government to provide bus service in the community during an officially declared emergency.

Meanwhile, news releases issued by transit agencies and news articles featuring the loss of some shuttle service by transit agencies are turning up in communities across the country.

An article in the Business Courier in Cincinnati reported that the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority was trying to rally public support for an exemption from the FTA that would allow it to continue providing shuttle service to football games.

An article in The Washington Post about the loss of shuttle service to sports and entertainment events, including Redskins football games, that had been provided by transit agencies drew a reply from FTA Administrator James S. Simpson.

Simpson pointed out in a letter to the newspaper that the article failed to mention how public and private bus operators worked together to develop the regulations and that they allow transit agencies to focus on their core mission of providing high quality, fixed-route bus service.

"All in all, we believe this regulation is a win-win for riders as well as all types of charter operators around the country," he emphasized.

The push by some transit operators to get members of Congress to look into the rules brought some immediate action from Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat who fired off a letter to Simpson saying he has "serious concerns about the privatization of services long provided by public transit entities."

He questioned provisions of the rules that deal with temporary shuttle service to special events, event sponsors contacting transit agencies if their negotiations with private carriers fail, game-day and season-long stadium bus service and the need for a private carrier to provide ancillary services requested by event sponsors.

A coalition of private motorcoach organizations quickly delivered a detailed, six-page letter to Simpson answering each of the issues raised by Feingold and stressing its strong support for the new rule.

"While we understand there are numerous issues that have been raised by transit authorities on implementation of the final rule, we believe the final rule should be implemented and enforced vigorously," wrote the coalition of the United Motorcoach Association, National School Transportation Association, International Motorcoach Group, Northwest Motorcoach Association, California Bus Association and Trailways.

It charged, too, that the number of requests for exemptions and advisory opinions have revealed that the volume of illegal charters being performed by transit authorities at subsidized or below market rates far exceeded the level of the activity that private carriers knew or had estimated.

"The illegal charters that have been revealed through this process are in violation of grant agreements these properties have with the FTA," it maintained.

The coalition asked Simpson to keep in mind the FTA mission of protecting the private motorcoach industry from transit agencies that illegally take away their business.

"Protecting private operators ability to compete in an open and competitive market without the hindrance of subsidized public transit authorities using federal tax dollars to unfairly compete is the very basis for the charter rules and Congressional direction to revise them," the group maintained. "We implore FTA to hold fast to this principle."

Feingolds letter also drew a brief response from the American Bus Association, which reminded the FTA that game-day stadium bus service is clearly charter service.

However, it also said if transits want to run game-day shuttles, they could do so by increasing the number of buses on their regular routes as long as they do not take money from the event organizers or charge more than their regular bus fare.