Izmit and Kocaeli are part of Turkey's industrial heartland situation to the east of Istanbul and on the north coast of the Marmara Sea.

[1] In the following days, a public vote on the name and color of the tramway line was announced by the Kocaeli Metropolitan and Izmit Municipalities.

During the design phase of the line, controversy arose around plans to repurpose an old railway right of way that had been converted into a pedestrian path into one for the new tramway route.

At the opening ceremony, Ministry of National Defense (Turkey) Fikri Işık announced that the line would be free of charge until July 15, 2017.

The frequency of trains was arranged to be between 5 and 15 minutes (depending on the hours of the day) with the start of the school term in September.