WASHINGTON -- The departure from the Federal Transit Administration of Chief Counsel David Horner apparently will have no notable affect on the agencys drafting of new charter bus rules, easing the concerns of some in the motorcoach industry who worried the move could spell trouble.

FTA officials, who asked not to be identified, said the same team of staff attorneys that has worked on the charter rules since the beginning of the project remains on the job and there is no cause for the private operators to worry.

"The same lawyers are doing the same heavy lifting they have been doing and nothing really has changed," emphasized one official.

Motorcoach operators had raised concerns that the promotion in August of the former chief counsel to the policy office of the U.S. Department of Transportation could have a negative impact on the overhauling of the rules, which is winding down and is due to be finished in December.

Horner played a key role in a lengthy series of FTA-run negotiation sessions held last year between private charter operators and public transit agencies, and had been the lead attorney in the rewriting of the charter rules.

Some private operators viewed Horner as being understanding of their long-time complaints that public transit agencies often ignore the existing charter rules, and they have been hopeful the new rules will better protect them.

The first version of the proposed rules that was issued in February won praise from many motorcoach operators who saw them as putting a tighter and enforceable clamp on public transit agencies, limiting the charter work they would be able to do.

They cited the elimination of the willing-and-able process, cease-and-desist orders, the appeals process and regulatory language that was seen as vague, unenforceable and easily disputable.

Those and other provisions were replaced with language the private operators said were fairer, clearer and more reasonable.

However, publication of the proposed rules touched off a firestorm in the public sector, with transit agencies flooding the FTA with letters of complaint. Of the nearly 300 letters filed with the FTA during the public comment period, about two-thirds came from public bus operators.

FTA lawyers began reviewing the complaints in April in preparation of writing the final rules.

Horner was replaced at the FTA by Severn Miller, a 1988 law graduate of Washington and Lee University who does not appear to have any experience in transit or motorcoach transportation activities. He practiced appellate litigation in election, tort and insurance law and served as general counsel for the election committee of Bob Ehrlich, the former governor of Maryland.