The Port Authority has selected a company to replace its old fare boxes with a new automated fare collection system using "smart cards" with embedded electronic chips.

Administrators yesterday recommended awarding a contract for a maximum of $33 million to Scheidt & Bachmann USA Inc., which has been involved internationally with cutting-edge transportation technology for 25 years.

But there's one big hitch.

While federal and state money are lined up, the authority needs a $1.1 million commitment from Allegheny County as its 3.33 percent share of matching funds, and so far the county isn't willing to commit.

The Port Authority last month asked Allegheny County for $9.9 million to leverage more state and federal funds for capital improvements, but County Executive Dan Onorato said the agency will get $6.3 million "and not one penny more" next year.

"It's not that the county opposes the new fare collection system," authority Chief Executive Officer Steve Bland said, but it has numerous obligations of its own and only so much to dole out.

If the county gives only $6.3 million to the authority for its capital budget, the money quickly will be gobbled up by previous debt obligations and projects already under way, including the $435 million Light Rail Transit system extension to the North Shore and new buses.

"A lot can happen between now and January," when Scheidt & Bachmann can withdraw its offer, Mr. Bland said. "We'll have to sort things out."

If the authority can somehow provide the $1.1 million local share over a two-year period, officials said, installation of 1,100 fare boxes could begin on buses and trolleys by August and the system could be operational by January 2010.

"It's an important project to us," said Claudia Allen, the authority's longtime finance director, ticking off a list of improvements to be compared with today's fare collection system that is antiquated by industry standards.

Benefits include increasing revenue resulting from reduced evasion and fraud and better fare accuracy while lowering expenses through simplifying operator duties, improving passenger flow, requiring fewer "money room" personnel and eliminating abuses with student ID cards.

The contract has been structured with Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission input so that nine regional carriers including the Beaver, Butler and Westmoreland county transit authorities could "buy in" and offer their riders the same system.

Scheidt & Bachmann would provide 30 ticket vending machines, 4 million limited-use smart cards, 400,000 permanent smart cards, data transfer, and related equipment, employee training and a two-year warranty.

Authority officials and staff have spent more than two years planning, developing and deciding upon a vendor for a changeover to the automated fare collection system.

Scheidt & Bachmann finished first among three companies evaluated by a special panel that included the SPC and representatives of the regional carriers.