NORTHAMPTON — Despite the city previously saying that the ValleyBike Share would restart operations at the end of May, the program has yet to resume throughout the Pioneer Valley, with an updated start date yet to be announced by city officials.

On May 2, Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra announced that the ValleyBike Share program had found a new provider to operate regional bike rental program, contracting with the Toronto company Drop Mobility. Although the program is offered in eight area communities and the UMass Amherst campus, the responsibility of operating the program falls on the city of Northampton. Other cities included in the program are Easthampton, Holyoke, South Hadley, Amherst, Chicopee, Springfield and West Springfield.

The mayor had announced at the time the program would be expected to launch near the end of May. But two months since that announcement, the program’s hundreds of bikes have yet to be ridden by anyone this year in the Valley. The program has been inoperative since the previous operator, Bewegen, declared bankruptcy last year.

Carolyn Misch, the city’s director of Planning & Sustainability, said Tuesday that there still is no scheduled start date for the Valley Bike program.

“I don’t have a date for bike share launch yet,” Misch wrote in an email to the Gazette. “The contract took a bit longer to be awarded, so that pushed the hopeful end of [a] May potential estimate.”

Misch said she expected an update on the program “sometime late next week.”

The Planning & Sustainability office put out a request for proposals for a new owner in January. The request stipulated that the new operator of the program must resume existing operations and add additional bicycles and stations.

Drop Mobility must also provide the city with a method for ensuring access for low-income riders and those who don’t have bank accounts, as well as people without smartphones and credit cards. The company will also be required to provide ValleyBike with monthly data regarding the performance of the system for future evaluation.

The contract with Drop Mobility is for $1,200 per bike, with a maximum of 500 bikes, or $600,000 for the first year.

The ValleyBike Share program began in 2018. Communities served by the program combine to cover more than $70,000 in administrative costs, while MassDOT and the Pioneer Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization also provide capital funding for equipment, and local sponsors such as Smith College and Cooley Dickinson Hospital also underwrite certain costs.