Charter Rule · Analysis
What the FTA Has Already Decided About Game-Day Shuttles
Three decisions — 2010, 2013 and 2026 — have settled most of the questions that arise when a federally funded transit agency runs a premium-fare shuttle to a stadium. Supplemental background to Pronto's Notice of Charter Rule Violation served on the Jacksonville Transportation Authority.
By Kumar Shah, President & CEO, Accelar, Inc. dba Pronto Corporation · FTA Charter Registration ID 6643 · 3 October 2026
Every autumn the same argument plays out somewhere in the country. A public transit agency runs buses to a football stadium on game days, charges more than its ordinary fare, and a private motorcoach operator asks whether that is allowed. The agency’s answer is usually some version of three points: moving people is what a transit agency exists to do, the buses are its own, and a run to the stadium is just another route on its network.
The question is not new, and the Federal Transit Administration has answered most of it already. What follows is a plain reading of three decisions and what they establish. We set them out here because they form the background to the Notice of Charter Rule Violation and Cease and Desist that Pronto served on the Jacksonville Transportation Authority on 30 September 2026.
The test the rule actually applies
The Charter Service Rule, 49 C.F.R. Part 604, restricts when a recipient of federal transit funding may provide charter service in competition with private operators. Section 604.3(c)(2) defines charter service as:
“Transportation provided by a recipient to the public for events or functions that occur on an irregular basis or for a limited duration and (i) a premium fare is charged that is greater than the usual or customary fixed route fare, or (ii) the service is paid for in whole or in part by a third party.”
49 C.F.R. § 604.3(c)(2)
Two elements, then a choice of two triggers. The service must be tied to an irregular or limited-duration event; and either the fare must be premium, or someone other than the rider must be paying. Most stadium disputes turn on the first trigger.
2010 A season pass does not fix a premium fare
Advisory Opinion 10-01 · City of Lincoln, Nebraska · May 2010
Big Red Express, University of Nebraska football
The City of Lincoln asked the FTA a careful question: if the agency has a regular $8.00 all-day pass, good on any route on any day of the year, can that pass be the exclusive fare for football express routes? The ordinary one-way fixed-route fare was $1.75.
The City's position had more going for it than most. The express stops were existing fixed-route stops. On Saturdays the express and the fixed-route services ran concurrently over similar routes, with the express effectively supplementing regular service. And the pass was a genuine, generally available product, not an event ticket.
The FTA was unmoved:
“The $8 fare/roundtrip charged for the Big Red Express service is, therefore, a premium fare since it is more than the usual and customary fare.”
The agency was advised it was “engaging in unauthorized charter service,” and given thirty days either to charge its regular fixed-route fare or to notice registered charter providers and let them bid.
What it establishes. The comparison is to the ordinary fixed-route fare, not to some other premium product the agency happens to sell. Packaging an event fare inside a pass does not change what it is. And an express service that shares stops with fixed routes, and runs alongside them, is still charter service when the fare is premium.
Postscript · City of Lincoln, Nebraska · August 2026
The same agency, sixteen years later — doing it the way the rule intends
In August 2026 the City of Lincoln issued its federally required charter notice for the 2026 University of Nebraska football season. Pronto responded inside the window that it was ready, willing and able to operate the service. StarTran stood down from the game-day shuttle it had run for more than forty-five years, and on 26 August the City announced publicly that Pronto would be operating it. Pronto launched fifteen days later and has carried fans to every home game since.
That is the entire mechanism working as written: notice, affirmative response, preclusion, private operation. No complaint, no docket, no dispute. An agency that has been through § 604.14 once knows what it costs to get it wrong — and Lincoln did not get it wrong twice.
Jacksonville did not get that memo. JTA took the same first step: a § 604.14 notice, issued on 21 July 2026. Pronto responded in the affirmative inside the window, exactly as it had in Lincoln. On 27 July JTA replied that it “has no further role in this process.” It then operated game-day stadium shuttle service itself, beginning with the preseason home game on 21 August and continuing on 28 August, 13 September and 27 September. Where Lincoln’s notice ended with a private operator running the service, Jacksonville’s ended with the agency running it anyway. That is the conduct Pronto’s notice of 30 September addresses.
2013 Forty years of tradition is not a defence
Advisory Opinion, Docket No. FTA-2007-0023 · 10 April 2013
SFMTA express service to Candlestick Park, San Francisco 49ers
This one is ours. Accelar, Inc., established in November 2006 and doing business as Pronto Corporation and iPronto, asked the FTA in August 2012 whether SFMTA's 75X, 77X, 78X and 79X express buses to Candlestick Park on 49ers game days were charter service. SFMTA had been running that service since 1971 . The round-trip fare was $12.00. No third party subsidised it.
The FTA's Chief Counsel made three findings.
First, longevity is irrelevant. Service to sporting events is irregular and of limited duration “because its operation varies depending on the home schedule of the San Francisco 49ers.” Forty-two years of continuous operation did not convert it into ordinary transit.
Second, the fare comparison must match mode and distance. SFMTA argued its $12 game fare was not premium because its cable cars cost $6.00. The FTA rejected that as “inapposite due to the difference in both mode and distance,” noting cable cars are a fixed guideway mode and not subject to the charter regulation at all. The right comparison was SFMTA's own express bus service elsewhere in the system — which ran at the standard $2.00 fare.
Third, the arithmetic followed. “Accordingly, charging $12 for a fare to Candlestick Park during 49ers games constitutes a premium fare and the service is charter service.”
What it establishes — and the part operators tend to miss. The remedy matters as much as the finding. The FTA gave SFMTA sixty days to tell it which of three things it would do: stop providing the service, modify the fare to match its regular express bus fare, or issue notice to registered private providers under § 604.14 and proceed under § 604.9.
That third option is not a free pass. It is an election, and it carries a condition. Section 604.9(b) provides that a recipient “shall not provide charter service under this section if a registered charter provider indicates an interest in providing the charter service set out in the notice.” An agency that issues the notice has accepted that the service is charter service — and has accepted that a qualified private response ends the matter.
2026 How the fare is structured is not the whole question
FTA Office of Chief Counsel · reported September 2026
Sunway Charters v. Charlotte Area Transit System, PGA Championship
Trolleys, Inc. doing business as Sunway Charters, a registered charter provider, complained about shuttle service CATS ran for the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. CATS modified an existing transit route and charged what it described as a standard fare, collected by the PGA.
CATS projected 66,820 passenger trips and received $147,003. Weather cut actual ridership to 38,232. Because CATS kept the full payment while carrying materially fewer passengers, the FTA found the effective fare was a premium fare, the service was charter service, and directed CATS to repay the PGA $62,893.60.
What it establishes. Three things. A registered private operator's complaint is a real remedy, not a formality. The FTA will order money returned. And modifying an existing route does not launder event service into transit.
It is worth being precise about its limits, though. CATS turned on a third-party payment retained in excess of trips delivered. The decision itself notes that had ridership met projections and had CATS not kept the surplus, the service might not have been found to violate the rule. It is an effective-fare case, not a published-fare case.
What the three add up to
| The question an agency will raise | Where it has been answered |
|---|---|
| “We have run this service for decades.” | 2013 — SFMTA since 1971. Still charter service. |
| “Our fare is comparable to our other premium products.” | 2013 — the comparison is same mode, similar distance. Cable cars did not count. |
| “It is sold as a pass, not an event ticket.” | 2010 — an $8 all-day pass against a $1.75 fare is still a premium fare. |
| “It is just an extension of an existing fixed route.” | 2010 and 2026 — shared stops, concurrent operation and route modification all failed. |
| “We issued a charter notice, so we have complied.” | 2013 — the notice is an election under § 604.9, and § 604.9(b) closes it once a registered provider responds. |
| “A private operator cannot do anything about it.” | 2026 — a registered provider's complaint succeeded and money was ordered repaid. |
Where Jacksonville sits
Pronto's position, set out in the notice served on JTA on 30 September 2026, is as follows.
JTA's standard fixed-route fare is $1.75. Its Gameday Xpress service to Jaguars home games is published at $10 per game from its downtown lots and $15 from its suburban lots, with season passes at $60 and $80. The service runs on game days only, keyed to the Jaguars' home schedule. No third-party subsidy has been claimed for it.
On 21 July 2026 JTA issued a charter service notice under § 604.14 for Jaguars game-day shuttle service. Pronto, a registered charter provider, responded in the affirmative inside the response window, which closed on 4 August. On 27 July JTA wrote that it “has no further role in this process.” JTA then operated game-day stadium shuttle service beginning with the preseason home game on 21 August and continuing through the home games on 28 August, 13 September and 27 September.
Pronto contends that this conduct is inconsistent with § 604.9(b) and with the interpretation of § 604.3(c)(2) set out in the decisions above. The FTA has not ruled on the matter, and JTA has not responded publicly to the notice.
Why we are publishing this
Because the argument recurs, and because the answers are harder to find than they should be. Advisory opinions sit in a federal docket, not in a searchable library, and most operators discover them only when they are already in a dispute. If this saves one operator a month of work, it has earned its place.
Pronto operates reserved-seat, advance-booked shuttle service for stadium and campus events, including the University of Nebraska Huskers game-day shuttle in Lincoln and, from the 2026 season, a published portal for Jacksonville Jaguars home games at iPronto.com/jacksonville-jaguars.
Pronto operates an independent park-and-ride shuttle service and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the Jacksonville Jaguars, EverBank Stadium, the University of Nebraska, the San Francisco 49ers or the National Football League. Team names and marks belong to their owners.
Accelar, Inc. dba Pronto Corporation · FTA Charter Registration ID 6643 · iPronto.com/newsroom
