It is operated by Dopravný podnik Bratislava, a. s and the system is known as Mestská hromadná doprava (MHD, municipal mass transit).

Conversions to standard-gauge railway have been proposed in the past, but the network uses narrow-gauge 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) track also known as metre-gauge.

Permission was granted by the Hungarian Royal Ministry of Trade on 2 June 1893 for Bratislava (then Pozsony) to open its first tram line.

At this time, however, the tram network became very congested, both for reasons of financial savings and by extending the intervals, and also because there was still no carrier system of public transport.

This vehicle was originally developed for the Italian city of Cagliari, where a 960mm track gauge is used, while for the tests in Bratislava its chassis was modified to 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in).

A turn of events took place in March 2007 when the Bratislava City Hall and the Slovak Railways (ŽSR) announced the intention to build the line on a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) (Bratislava tramway) and 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) (Slovak railway gauge) with the intention to use the track for both trains and trams.

Opponents argued that this solution was not feasible due to the differences between the voltage used by trams and trains.

In addition to the Petržalka expansion, with the new proposal trams could also reach the city district of Vajnory, Devínska Nová Ves (extension of the line from the Pri Kríži stop to Dúbravka and around the housing estate in Devínska Nová Ves to the Volkswagen plant) and Vrakuňa.

A consortium of three firms led by Eurovia SK carried out the project for EUR 58 million excluding VAT.

On 15 June 2020, a reconstruction started on the section between the stops Cintorín Rača and Záhumenice on Račianska radial.

The fleet consists exclusively of trams of Czech or Czechoslovak production from the defunct manufacturer ČKD and Škoda Transportation.