Opened on April 23, 1933,[2][3] it presently comprises five lines, and is operated by the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority, with a fleet of 45 trolleybuses.

The last streetcar line in Dayton, City Railway's route 1-Third Street, was converted to trolley buses on September 28, 1947.

[2][6] However, via mergers, acquisitions and sometimes bankruptcy the number of operating companies gradually declined to just one or two in each city.

Dayton was unusual in having multiple transit companies in operation through to the World War II era.

RTA's board of trustees voted in 1988 to phase out trolley bus operation, but this decision was reversed in 1991, after a consultant's study report indicated that retaining trolley bus service was the most cost-effective option over the long term,[10][11] as well as having environmental benefits.

[11] Over the period 1996–99, the Flyer E800s were replaced by a new fleet of 57 vehicles built by Electric Transit, Inc. (ETI), based on an existing model of the Czech company Skoda (and partially built by Skoda), with final assembly taking place in Dayton.

[15]) Trolley buses normally provided all of the service on routes 4, 5, 7, and 8, except when service was temporarily disrupted by major road construction, but routes 1, 2, and 3 used trolleys only on a few trips in the weekday rush hour and were otherwise served by diesel or hybrid buses.

In 2024 the city of Oakwood decided to remove all trolleybus infrastructure from their neighborhood because they considered it aesthetically unpleasing.

Vehicles purchased later included additional Brills, along with ETBs built by Pullman-Standard and Marmon-Herrington.

[19] By the end of the 1960s, the system's last Brill trolley buses had been retired, as had most of the Pullmans, but a few of latter remained in use into the period of RTA ownership, being stored in 1973 and eventually scrapped.

[19] Marmon-Herrington trolley buses thereby comprised almost the entire fleet at the time of transfer of the system to public ownership in 1972.

[2] The MVRTA was formed in 1971, and in late 1972 purchased the entire City Transit system, including its fleet of vehicles.

RTA acquired two 1981–82 Brown-Boveri-built, GM "New Look"-body trolley buses from the Edmonton Transit System, in Canada, in 1995,[22] retrofitted wheelchair lifts to them, and placed them in service in 1996.

Anticipating retiring its 1976–77 Flyers at about 20 years of age, RTA began considering options for purchasing new vehicles, and in 1994 the agency placed an order with Electric Transit, Inc. for 63 new trolley buses.

Dayton's first ETI trolley buses were three prototypes built in 1995 and delivered to RTA in late December 1995 and January 1996.

[7] The suffix E2 denotes the production series of the export model, which incorporated several changes adopted after testing of the three prototypes, in particular relocation of the wheelchair lift from the rear door to the front door and, necessitated by that change, widening of the body.

[32] With its fleet having reached 15 years of age by that time, RTA began making plans to purchase replacement vehicles, with plans to test new models and a goal of being ready to place an order by 2016, when the fleet will be about 18 years old.

[13] The present Dayton trolley bus fleet comprises two types of trolley buses, two model DMDT and 43 model DMBT:[34] In May 2013, RTA placed an order with Vossloh Kiepe for four prototype low-floor, dual-mode buses,[33] the first of which (No.

Gillig provided the bus bodies, using its "BRT Plus" model, into which the Vossloh Kiepe propulsion equipment was installed.

It was planned that after testing, which was expected to last about one year, RTA would choose between the two designs and consider placing an order large enough to replace its entire ETI trolley bus fleet.

[33] In 2015, RTA had already included in its budgeting for future years $43 million for an eventual purchase of 41 more Gillig/Vossloh Kiepe dual-mode buses, for delivery by 2019, if testing of the four prototype vehicles showed the design to be reliable and worth the cost.

[35] Of the two alternative designs, the one using batteries for operation away from the trolley wires was chosen at the conclusion of testing; they carry RTA fleet numbers 1403 and 1404.

[14] Several retired Dayton trolley buses have been saved for historical preservation, including at public museums.