Pesa is a successor to the Bydgoszcz repair shops of PKP Polskie Koleje Państwowe, Polish State Railways.

After the collapse in 1989 of the Communist regime in Poland the ZNTK Bydgoszcz repair shop was spun off in 1991 as an independent company.

Since 2001 Pesa has secured contracts to supply new Light rail vehicles (LRVs, trams) to Warsaw, Gdańsk and other cities in Poland, Hungary, Germany and Kazakhstan; and both electric and diesel multiple unit trains (EMUs and DMUs) to operators in Poland, Italy, Kazakhstan and Germany.

Pesa's most noteworthy contracts are: (1) a May 29, 2009, contract worth 1.5bn złoty ($460 million) for 186 trams for Warsaw, Poland to replace 40 percent of that city’s fleet,[1] and (2) on September 19, 2012, Pesa signed two framework agreements with DB, Deutsche Bahn, German Railways to supply up to 470 Diesel multiple unit (DMU) trains for regional and local services, with a total value of up to €1.2bn ($1.5 billion).

[2] Before the re-establishment of Poland as a sovereign state in 1918, the city of Bydgoszcz, whose German name is Bromberg, was part of Prussia.

In 1867 a tunnel leading from the present Zygmunt August Street to the repair shops, and running under the railway tracks, was put into service.

In the 1920s the workshop was affected negatively by the departure of workers of German nationality (1500 employees) who were replaced by Poles, among them, emigrants returning from Westphalia and the Rhineland.

The first head of the Bydgoszcz shop was F. Hoffman, who was a member of the Polish commission taking over the workshop from German management on January 20, 1920.

Military activity in the German invasion of Poland of September 1939 did not do significant damage to the Bydgoszcz railway workshop.

Polish workers used sabotage to prevent German looting of plant machinery and production equipment which had been dismantled and prepared for shipment to Germany.

After Jaruzelski's government imposed Martial law in Poland on December 13, 1981, the members of the Regional Board were arrested by the state Militia and imprisoned, and the property of the Factory Committee was confiscated.

In 1982 the Bydgoszcz workshop, together with other ZNTK's, Zaklady Naprawcze Taboru Kolejowego, 'Repair Shops for Railway Rolling Stock' was incorporated in the structure of PKP with the objective of establishing military control.

On November 2, 1995, the enterprise was transformed into a Joint-stock company under the State Treasury, and in 1996 its stock was placed in the National Investment Funds.

On August 17, 2001, a meeting of shareholders authorized the company to adopt the new name Pojazdy Szynowe Pesa Bydgoszcz Spółka Akcyjna Holding.

In 2003 Pesa won a prize at the Trako Railway Fair in Gdansk for a sleeping car meeting EuroNight standards.

In 2006 Pesa signed a contract for 15 trams for Warsaw, followed by orders for Łódź, Gdańsk, Bydgoszcz, Szczecin and Częstochowa.

Ferrovie del Sud Est subsequently exercised an option for 10 additional DMUs, increasing the total order to 23 trains.

[1] On March 16, 2010, Pesa signed a contract to supply 13 electric multiple unit (EMU) trainsets for Warsaw suburban services.

[6] On April 11, 2011, Pesa signed a KC 1.99bn order to supply the Czech Railways with 31 two-car diesel multiple unit trains for regional services.

[8] On September 19, 2012, Deutsche Bahn (DB, German Railways) signed two framework contracts with Pesa to build up to 470 diesel multiple unit trains (DMUs) for regional and local services.

[10][11] The Pesa Dart trainsets will be 150 meters long, with 352 seats including 60 in first class, will have ERTMS equipment, and will have a top speed of 160 km/h (99 mph).

[12] In June 2018, Pesa was nationalized by the Polish government after a dearth of new orders and struggles to deliver equipment led to financial stress.

[13] On March 3, 2019, Pesa signed a contract with Czech private operator RegioJet to supply 7 two-car electric multiple units for regional services.

In December 2023, the company signed a contract with the private Czech carrier RegioJet for the delivery of up to 60 electric multiple units.