The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has given Metro Transit a reprieve to continue providing special shuttle service to Seattle Mariners games.

"The FTA said it was in the public interest to grant an exception for this unique event," said Kevin Desmond, head of Metro.

In April, the FTA announced that Metro must solicit bids from private bus-charter agencies for all sports and cultural events. Only if there were no bids could Metro continue to provide the service.

One company, Starline Transportation, bid on the service for baseball games but was rejected by the Mariners, which called Starline's bid "incomplete."

"They couldn't say whether they had access to coaches to provide the service and weren't able to say they could provide service to disabled riders," said Rebecca Hale, Mariners spokeswoman. "That was not good."

Gladys Gillis, head of Starline, said her company was prepared to take over the service but that the Mariners balked at the price. The Mariners pay Metro a maximum of $150,000 for the season to provide $3 shuttles to the baseball games, while Starline was asking $560,000.