ALEXANDRIA, Va. The United Motorcoach Association is pursing charter-service complaints with the Federal Transit Administration against transit agencies in Purcellville, Va., and Rome, Ga.

The association says the Virginia Regional Transportation Association in Purcellville violated charter rules last June and July, and again in October. So far, however, UMA has had some difficulty convincing the FTA regional administrator in Philadelphia to agree.

Virginia Regional Transit told the administrator it published charter service notices but no private operators responded, so it legally provided the disputed service.

UMA and Virginia Coach Company, a private operator based in Purcellville, contend Virginia Regional Transit did not comply with FTA rules that require the agency to not only publish its charter service notice in a local newspaper but also to send copies to all private charter operators in the geographic area where the agency operates, plus copies to UMA and the American Bus Association.

Neither UMA nor Virginia Coach received notices from Virginia Regional Transit in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

UMA and Virginia Coach say the transit agency provided charter service to Chinmaya Mission in June and July of last year at a daily rate of $300. UMA contends such a rate is "unobtainable" in the bus industry "without benefit of federal subsidies." Then, in October, the transit system again provided illegal charter service, according to UMA.

In the Rome, Ga., case, UMA contends the City of Rome Transit Department either "grossly misinterpreted" federal charter rules or is attempting to circumvent the rules in an effort to "disguise what would otherwise be considered charter" service.

According to UMA, Rome Transit has a trolley bus that it routinely uses to provide charter service. The transit agency denies the allegation, saying it subcontracts the trolley to willing-and-able private operators that request it.