[1] Publicly-owned, it is today the second largest municipal bus company in the United Kingdom after Lothian Buses in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The Nottingham and District Tramways Company Limited opened its first routes in 1878 with horse-drawn trams, and experimented with steam traction a few years later.

World War II brought reduced services, economy measures (including diluting diesel with creosote) and blackout screens on vehicles.

Trolleybuses were withdrawn between April 1965 and July 1966, and the West Bridgford UDC Transport undertaking came under Nottingham's control in 1968.

[1] However the company effectively remained in public ownership as Nottingham City Council held full equity of the new entity.

In 1991 South Notts Bus Company was purchased for £1, giving NCT a route from Nottingham to Loughborough and a garage at Gotham.

Despite many offers to buy, Nottingham City Council retained 100% ownership in NCT until May 2001, when 5% of the shares were issued to Transdev.

In 2007, Nottingham City Transport became the first company in the UK to introduce ethanol powered "Eco" buses.

By 2018, Nottingham City Transport was operating the largest fleet of biogas-powered buses in the world.

[citation needed] During summer 2022, Nottingham City Transport took delivery of a final order for 23 more Enviro400 CBGs, bringing the operator's total gas bus fleet to 143 of the type.

[13] The operator also announced that they and Nottingham City Council had submitted a business case as part of a bid to the UK government's Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) Fund for funding the purchase of 78 battery electric single-deck buses, and the following month they announced that their bid had been successful.

The first 22 new electric Yutong E10 and E12s began entering service from NCT's Trent Bridge in April 2024, with further orders being placed for 38 more to be delivered between 2025 and 2026;[14][15] these buses are intended to replace NCT's entire single-deck fleet at Trent Bridge garage.