While private omnibus services are known to have begun in the city at least as early as 1854, the roots of Halifax Transit date back to June 11, 1866.

The street railway served Halifax until March 1949, when the war-worn trams were replaced by "trackless" electric trolley coaches.

[8] The bright yellow trolleys, operated by utility company Nova Scotia Light and Power, plied city streets exclusively until 1963, when they were supplemented by diesel buses for the first time.

Since then, the service has been operated directly by the municipal government, and since October 2010 the agency has reported though the Transportation Standing Committee of Halifax Regional Council.

The municipality announced on July 15, 2014 that it was changing the service's name to Halifax Transit to reflect the city's new brand.

The program selected cities across the country to showcase a number of different initiatives in reducing greenhouse gases.

Halifax Regional Municipality's $13.3-million proposal for a BRT system was chosen, and $4.1 million was given by the Government of Canada toward this project.

These buses featured air conditioning, high-back reclining seats with foot rests, carpeted walls and ceiling to reduce road noise and vibration, a special livery and logo, and no advertisements both on the inside and outside.

The D40LF was the current bus of choice at the time for Halifax Transit's regular fleet, so they opted to keep the status quo.

These twenty buses featured a new livery on the outside, air conditioning on the inside (a first for Halifax Transit), bike racks, carpeting on the walls and ceiling to reduce road noise and vibrations, and larger plush high-back reclining chairs with arm and leg rests and custom designed fabric design.

Also differing these buses from the rest of the Halifax Transit fleet are onboard transmitters for the 3M Opticom system.

Passengers would have been able to use regular transit tickets or monthly bus passes (MetroPass), but must deposit an additional fifty cents into the farebox.

The new bus stop signs featured the same colours and design as the livery on the buses, the new shelters featured the gold and blue MetroLink "swirl" along the back wall, and the new info posts, which displayed maps and schedule information for the three former MetroLink routes, they were also done in the same gold and blue swirl, with the stop name vertically oriented along the side.

A number of changes were made to streets and intersections along the routes to help the MetroLink buses get ahead of the rest of traffic.

[23] Before the discovery of the leak, Halifax Transit initially claimed that the excess fuel consumption was caused by higher usage during winter.

[25] In January 2014, Halifax Regional Council approved a study to look at a major re-design of the city's transit system.

Proposed amendments to the plan were defeated in November 2016, with the exception of a change to the route of the Porters Lake MetroX and a short reprieve to attempt to increase ridership to save the #15 bus to York Redoubt.

The plan aims to increase the proportion of resources dedicated to high-ridership routes, simplify the system and make it more understandable, improve service quality and reliability, and give priority to transit in the transportation network.

Corridor routes form the backbone of the revamped bus system, providing frequent service connecting transit terminals.

In addition, critics characterised the "Moving Forward Together Plan" as disregarding the key principles that Halifax Transit identified through years of public engagement and consultation.

[31] The final round of MFTP adjustments, originally scheduled to come into effect in November 2022, was (with the exception of the introduction of route 50) postponed to 2023 due to chronic staff shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Corridor routes, considered the backbone of the bus system, operate at headways of 5–15 minutes during peak hours.

Express routes provide limited-stop services to major destinations (e.g. downtown Halifax) at peak hours.

These started operating in August 2009 and connect Tantallon, the Airport, and Porters Lake, respectively, to Scotia Square in downtown Halifax.

[37] Digital tickets and passes can be purchased using HFXGO, the agency's free mobile fare payment app.

[39] A Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) identification card can be used to obtain free travel on Halifax Transit's buses and ferries.

Halifax Transit offers a low-income bus pass sold for 50 per cent of the regular price to eligible applicants.

The Departures Line works similarly to the previous GoTime IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system.

[45] As of June 8, 2017, all conventional buses in the Halifax Transit fleet were low floor and accessible to wheelchairs.

[49] Funding for the planning and design of one of the proposed ferry routes, the Halifax-Mill Cove (Bedford) service, was announced in June 2021.