A private bus company could take up the slack when Foxwoods Resort Casino ends its employee shuttle-bus service from Norwich next month, casino officials said Tuesday.

Several companies have approached Foxwoods about running buses from the Norwich area, said Chris O'Connell, Foxwoods' vice president of hotel operations, who declined to name the companies.

A Peter Pan Bus Lines official confirmed that Peter Pan, which has been running the Foxwoods shuttles under contract to the casino for nearly 20 years, hopes to keep providing transportation for Foxwoods employees.

"This would be a closed-door service, open only to Foxwoods employees - similar to what we currently provide," Colin Johnson, general manager of Peter Pan's Waterford division, said. "I'd like to think we'll have an agreement by next week."

O'Connell, however, said the companies seeking to provide a Norwich run to the casino would serve the public at large, not just Foxwoods employees.

"This would be no different than the SEAT line run," he said, referring to the Southeast Area Transit District. "It's a bus that a (casino) guest, a Norwich resident or a team member (casino employee) could ride from the Norwich area to Foxwoods. There's a SEAT bus now that runs to Foxwoods from Groton and Mystic and some of our team members ride it."

A new service, regardless of who provides it, will require riders to pay. Currently, Foxwoods' employees do not pay for the shuttle service.

"Fares have not been determined yet," Johnson said. "We've got to make it affordable. That's a very big part of it."

Foxwoods management informed employees earlier this month that effective Feb. 29 it would end the shuttles that operate daily from two Norwich lots and on weekends and holidays from Route 2 lots adjacent to Interstate 95 in North Stonington and west of Route 78 in Stonington.

"Any private service would not be subsidized or sponsored by Foxwoods," O'Connell said.

The shuttles' end poses a serious hardship for hundreds of Foxwoods employees, many of whom are members of the Norwich area's Asian community. Many do not have cars or other means of getting to and from work, according to local officials.

"A lot of people of Asian descent took these jobs (at Foxwoods) because they can walk to the Norwich lot and get a bus," Billy Shea, a Foxwoods poker dealer who doesn't use the shuttles, said. "The rug's being pulled out from under them. A lot of my co-workers feel so badly."

Xavier Prue, a Norwich resident who works in the Panera Bread outlet at Foxwoods, said he has no car and will likely have to find another job once the shuttle service ceases.

"This could be a way to make people quit," he said, voicing an opinion shared by others in his predicament. "I just think it's crazy."

O'Connell said Foxwoods' stopping of the shuttles was not a veiled attempt to force employees to leave.

"There's no truth to that at all," he said. "There's no underhanded intention to thin the work force. We're trying to do as much as we can to help people find rides so they can get to work."

He said Foxwoods has provided employees with information about alternative transportation and helped facilitate carpooling. He said the casino also gave employees as much notice as possible so that they could make other arrangements.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com