[2]) Königsberg's tram network reached its greatest extent in 1937, at which time it was organised into 15 routes with a total length of 102 km (63 mi).

The city's horse tram network at this stage used a 1435 mm gauge, which reflected standard practice across Germany.

[3] The first line, linking the (pulled down even before 1945) "Pillau mainline station" ("Pillauer Bahnhof") to the "New Market place" ("Neuen Markt", today Moskowskij-Prospekt) was opened on 31 May 1895.

A further management restructuring and renaming took place in 1922, following which the city trams were operated by "Königsberger Werke und Straßenbahn GmbH".

The pace of network expansion slowed down in the 1920s, but in 1924 a tram link was provided to the city crematorium (today the site of the Mitschurinets Cemetery Nr.1) and there was a tram line extension constructed to the recently opened Devau airport, a couple of miles to the north of the city.

Destructive bombing of Königsberg began two years later, in August 1941, a couple of months after the German-Soviet wartime alliance had collapsed, with the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

During the next four years the tram service was progressively adapted and reduced in response to deepening economic hardship and, especially from 1944, intensification of bomb damage.

By 1945 much of Königsberg was rubble, and in January 1945 tram services were withdrawn as bombing and fighting over the besieged city reached a new level of intensity.

By 1945 the Soviet leadership had persuaded their allies of that time to agree major changes to the international frontiers in central Europe.

They were replaced with dispossessed citizens, including large numbers of former soldiers and prisoners, from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.

On 7 November 1946 a "rump tram network" came into service, initially connecting Kaiser Wilhelm Platz and the northern mainline station to the "Hufenallee" (literally "Hooves Alley").

The stretch of track along "Steindamm" (long since renamed Leninski-Prospekt) to Tragheim Palve had been replaced but, at least in 1960, the trams were still not using it.

Population growth was reflected in extensive Soviet era redevelopment which included necessary adaptations to the tram routes.

Nevertheless, throughout the Perestroika years and the ensuing economic traumas, the city retained its network of ten tramlines.

The closure of Line 7 in 1999 and a certain ambiguity in published plans of that time suggested that having survived the economic turbulence of the 1990s, the Kaliningrad tram network might now face a more challenging future.

However, during a period when investment in tram infrastructure was hard to finance, there were many cities in central Europe still using legacy systems, including some, such as Jena, Frankfurt and Bratislava, using the one-meter gauge.

Additionally, in 1995 two second hand trams, dating back to 1963, were acquired from the city of Mannheim: they were taken out of service in 1999, however, because of problems obtaining replacement parts.

In December 2012 Pesa SA of Poland presented a prototype low-floor "Swing" tram for evaluation.

The city authorities also signaled an interest in purchasing Ukrainian Electron T5L64 low-floor multi-hinged trams.