More than a month ago, the City Council approved a nine-month pilot program for Lyft that would bring ride-hailing back to San Antonio, but the company still isn’t prepared to identify a launch date to restart the service here.

In early August, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based company said Lyft would return to San Antonio in the “near future.” On Friday, Chelsea Wilson, a public policy communications manager for Lyft, said the company still hasn’t determined a “hard date” for the restart.

“We’re still having internal conversations about a launch date,” she said. “There are actually a number of pieces that have to be put together for relaunch. We paused for a good amount of time in the city, so we’re going to be reaching out to the driver community and the passenger community as well.

“However, we are absolutely coming back, and we’re working very hard to make that happen.”

Lyft cities

A look at the cities served by Lyft as of Aug. 13, 2015.

Both Lyft and Uber shuttered operations in San Antonio on April 1, when the city’s updated vehicles-for-hire ordinance took effect. The companies said the local law included obstacles too onerous for them to do business here. The main strife was over background checks — and whether they’d be conducted by a third-party company using Social Security numbers or by the city using fingerprints and an FBI database.

Lyft left the market completely while Uber remained, offering downsized service in suburban cities and unincorporated areas of Bexar County.

After Mayor Ivy Taylor was elected in June, she directed City Manager Sheryl Sculley to develop the framework for a pilot program and appointed Councilman Roberto Treviño to oversee the council’s interests in the initiative.

Last month, they announced that they’d reached a deal that offers consumer choice. Lyft’s smartphone application to hail rides will allow drivers to indicate whether they’ve passed the city’s background check using fingerprints. The proposal passed 6-5.

The nine-month window for the pilot program will begin once Lyft is ready to roll here again. City officials are still waiting for a start date.

“We are anxiously awaiting their arrival,” Deputy City Manager Erik Walsh said. “They are having to start back up from scratch.”

Meanwhile, Uber is continuing to work on a framework for a pilot program that would fit under the parameters that the council approved last month. The company did not respond to requests for comment.

Walsh said fruitful conversations with the company, also based in San Francisco, have continued.

“We’re still working through with Uber. No agreement has been reached, but we’ve had positive conversations over the last couple weeks,” Walsh said. “The issue that they are wrestling with is how to provide that consumer choice element. They’ve kicked around a couple options, but we just haven’t gotten to that point yet. But our conversations with them have continued.”

Uber appears to have a limited range for those discussions. If its proposal strays too far from the framework the council approved for Lyft, the concept would have to go before the council, and the swing vote on the issue — Councilman Joe Krier — has made it clear that he harbors no love for Uber.

Speaking last month about his willingness to approve Lyft’s plan, Krier chided Uber for its behavior in San Antonio. He called the company’s approach here and with the Legislature offensive.

That means Uber’s operating agreement with the city has to be one that wouldn’t need a council vote. Because the company has continued operations in the area, there’s a general consensus that it could start up service in San Antonio quickly.

jbaugh@express-news.net

Twitter: @jbaugh