Today it is operated by the municipally owned Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft (the Munich Transport Company, or MVG) and is known officially and colloquially as the Tram.

Previous operators have included Société Anonyme des Tramways de Munich, the Münchner Trambahn-Aktiengesellschaft, the Städtische Straßenbahnen and the Straßenbahn München.

[2] The first tramways extended from Karlsplatz (Stachus), which remains one of central nodes of Munich's tram network.

[2] The 1972 Munich Olympic Games presaged a major expansion of public transport in the city.

[5] Such closures continued into the 1990s, but in 1991 the city council passed a plan to upgrade and modernize the tramway, as the trams were seen to be a better fit to expected passenger flows on many routes.

[8] In December 2013, the extension of route 19, from its previous terminus at Pasing-Marienplatz to München-Pasing railway station, was opened in order to enable better interchange with S-Bahn and long-distance train services.

[9] In December 2016, route 25 was extended to the east of the city, from Max Weber Platz to Berg am Laim S-Bahn station.

The extension comprises 2.8 kilometres (1.7 mi) of segregated alignment with seven new stops, and a journey time of approximately eight minutes.

[18] In 1965, two prototype articulated trams were delivered by Rathgeber,[18] built under license from Hansa Waggonbau of Bremen.

[citation needed] Three prototypes of a three-section low-floor tram of the Adtranz low floor design were ordered for evaluation.

In May 2014, MVG announced a prequalification procedure in which interested manufacturers can submit vehicle designs to the proposals.

Due to the increasing ridership, trams were tendered to be able to operate in multiple, reaching a total length of 48 meters.

The double traction trains, which are to consist of two coupled tramways, should provide space for 270 passengers.

[2][5] The network is standard gauge track and configured to allow a maximum body width of 2.3 metres (7 ft 7 in).

[24] The passengers can transfer to Tram line 12 for further journey to Schwabing, bypassing the city centre.

The €170 million Euro construction approved on 21 March 2018 is expected to begin in 2024 and completed by 2027 the latest.

Additionally, the proposal also examines the possible southern extension of Tram line 23 to connect with the Nordtangente at Martiusstraße and Leopoldstraße intersection and eastern extension of Tram lines 16 and 17 to the Johanneskirchen S-Bahn station at Johanneskirchner Straße and Cosimastraße.

[28] The proposal for the Nordtangente isn't without controversy due to the feasibility of running trams through the busy thoroughfare and potential damage to the environment during the construction and after the service launch.

[29] Several buses (MetroBus 54, 58, and 68 as well as local Bus 154) currently serve the 600-metre-long Englischer Garten thoroughfare, adding noise and congestion.

Adding the tram line would cause safety hazard for pedestrians and cyclists who in a very large number share the same thoroughfare.

An initial proposal was to use the specially modified trams that run on batteries across Englischer Garten before reverting to overhead lines outside the park.

MVG and Stadler Rail modified one Class S tram with lithium-ion batteries for feasibility runs at Velten near Berlin: this specially modified tram broke the world distance record by running 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) on a test track.

After the success of Initiative M-ein Englischer Garten, a grassroots movement to cover the portion of Mittleren Ring highway in Englischer Garten,[31] the same grassroot movement group proposed a tram tunnel as the most optimal solution, citing the 1926 article in Bayerischen Umschau.

The tunnel moves the tram and bus traffic underground, removing the noise and congestion.