Services are provided by Metro under a range of urban and non-urban contracts with the Transport Commission, a division within the Department of State Growth.

The history of Metro Tasmania dates back to 1893, when the Hobart Electric Tramway Company (HETCo) was founded by a London consortium.

At its commencement, the MTT operated trams, trolley, petrol and diesel buses, and was authorised to provide public transport services within a radius of seven miles of the Hobart and Launceston General Post Offices (GPO's).

On 30 August 1959, the MTT acquired the operations of Norton Coaches, which provided bus services in the Burnie area.

This was possible due to the low number of infections recorded in Tasmania and the effectiveness of measures put in place to minimise the chance of wide-scale outbreaks.

This caused extensive disruptions for Metro with drivers either stuck by the virus, isolated as close contacts or needing leave in order to care for sick relatives.

In Hobart, Metro's network extends from Gordon in the southern Channel region, north to Brighton and east to Seven Mile Beach and Opossum Bay with major interchanges in the Hobart, Glenorchy and Rosny Park CBD's and smaller transfer points at Kingston, Howrah Shoreline, Metro Springfield and Bridgewater.

Since January 2019, non-urban and urban fringe services operated by private companies (O'Driscolls, Tasmanian Redline Coaches (Kinetic) and Tassielink Transit) from destinations such as the Huon Valley, Sorell, Richmond and New Norfolk have been permitted to pick up and set down passengers travelling wholly within the Hobart urban area.

In Launceston, the Metro network is bounded by the suburbs of Youngtown, St Leonards, Waverley, Rocherlea, North Riverside, Blackstone Heights and Hadspen.

Private operators are now permitted to pick up and set down passengers travelling wholly within the Launceston urban area.

The route numbers generally form a pattern according to their geographical area:[9] Metro also operates the Tiger Bus service under contract to the Launceston City Council.

[14][15][16][17] Historically, Metro used paper tickets from its foundation until 1987, when a new magnetic-striped system by Crouzet was introduced in Hobart and Launceston, known initially as Metrofare.

The Greencard system was introduced statewide during 2010, and allows for passengers to deposit a desired amount onto their cards, with the balance debited upon each trip.

Fare types include Adult, Concession/Student and Child, and each are divided into Metro's system of zones based on the distance from the Hobart, Launceston and Burnie CBDs.

Fares for non-urban areas such as the Channel, South Arm-Opossum Bay, Wynyard and Ulverstone are set by the Transport Commission.

[20][21] As at May 2023, Metro had a statewide fleet of 229 buses,[1] consisting of: 100 Bustech XDi 12.5m low-floor buses with Cummins engines were introduced to the Metro fleet between 2018 and 2021, with the prototype constructed at the Bustech factory in Brisbane and the remaining 99 being built locally in partnership with Tasmanian company Elphinstone Pty Ltd at their factory in Wynyard.

In the late 1970s a new livery of rolled gold and cream appeared, which was updated in the early 1980s with a red band below the window line and a stylised MTT logo replacing the traditional monogram.

One of the most notable liveries was for the Busy Bee, a high-frequency service that operated for a period from the mid-1990s on the Sandy Bay & University loop in Hobart and to Invermay and Mowbray in Launceston.

A number of MAN 10.180 midibuses were painted bright yellow and adorned with a cartoon bee alongside destinations that the buses travelled to.

The success of the Sandy Bay service resulted in buses larger than the 30-seat midibuses being required at peak times, and a single Scania Orana was also painted in the livery.

Following the Tasman Bridge disaster in January 1975, the MTT was dramatically impacted as it did not have any depot facilities on the eastern side of the Derwent River.

This included workshops and driver amenities to enable the MTT's Eastern Shore services to operate independently from the City Depot while the Tasman Bridge was being rebuilt.