In the history of the public transport of Szeged, the legal predecessors of the Szeged Transport Company Ltd. used to play a significant role. The company was registered on 26 March 1885 under the name of the Szeged Public Iron Track Share Holding Company in the registry of commercial enterprises, but the horse tram traffic had already been launched on 1 July 1884. Before the operation of horse trams from 1 March 1879, omnibuses provided transport between the railways station, the city centre and the most popular inns. At the time of the great flood on 12 March 1879, the city had already 75,000 citizens. The disaster demolished the town and paralysed the traffic. After the reconstruction of Szeged, the omnibus could not meet the demands. Because of the industrial and commercial development and the increased freight transportation, the city announced a bid for constructing a horse tram network. Among the tenders, the one entered by Eduard Paget, a Belgian engineer was accepted. The permission for constructing the horse tram system entered into force in 1881. The horse tram for passenger traffic and its steam operated freight traffic network was finished by June 1884.

At the start. fare was ten pence that was reduced to six pence in 1890. Special services were also operated, and for passengers travelling on a regular basis, passes were sold. In 1885, the number of passengers exceeded 300,000. The freight transport also started with Pálfy and Kállai steam engines of 60 horsepower manufactured by Krausz & Co. By the turning of the century, the horse tram reached the possible peak of its development. The rapidly growing demands with which the horse tram could not keep up any longer claimed and urged the establishment of the electric tram that was one of the technical miracles of that era. The Szeged Public Iron Track Share Holding Company worked out the blueprint of electrifying in 1899, but only in 1907 could get the permission for the construction of the electric tram network. The first tram started running on 1 October 1908 on the track linking the two stations. Taking into consideration the incomes of that time, travelling on a tram was not a cheap fun. Only the well-off people could afford to use the new means of transport regularly. Setting a higher fare was not only by chance, since out of the profit of the capitalist enterprise 25% went into the city's budget. On top of that, the share holding company paid a great amount of money for using public areas as well.

In 1919, the share holding company had to stop operation on the Újszeged line. The economic recession after the First World War effected tram traffic as well. Several industrial tracks were put to an end and important track connections were dismantled. In 1923, the Belgian shareholders had left the company that later was taken over by the Budapest Trust of Tram Traffic. The share holding company sold a motor coach to the Miskolc Public Railway Company in 1924, and in 1926 to the Novi Sad Public Railway Company. The financial difficulties could make possible only small-scale development and modernization. The passenger traffic from 1920 and the freight traffic from 1925 on had rapidly been falling. Szeged survived the Second World War relatively luckily. This was because no significant fights took place in the territory of the city, the tram track network was not destroyed either. After the liberation of the city (11th October 1944), traffic could start on the main line with two trams within some days on 19th October following the reconstruction of the tracks and the trolley system network. By gradually removing limitation of the use of electricity, traffic could run on all lines as usual. In the autumn and winter of 1944, freight traffic played the main role in normalizing life. Without it providing heating material and food for citizens as well as transporting raw material needed to restart production could not have been ensured. In January of 1945, the transport company was drawn under the control of a state commissioner, which illustrates its significant importance and determining role in the life of the city. The next one and a half year passed in hyperinflation, which embittered the life of the company considerably. The forint having been introduced on 1st August 1946 created a new situation in an instant, and opened new opportunities for extending and modernizing the vehicle fleet having been urged more impatiently by the citizens of the city. The name of the company had first been changed into the Szeged Tramway Company on 14 April 1950, and then into the Szeged Transport Company in 1955.

In the new era, the transport company made a courageous step, and launched bus transport as well in the Tisza bank city. At the beginning, the bus traffic branch was meant to transport passengers for the tramway traffic, however, in a short period of time, it turned out that the bus lines supplement well and indispensably the public transport of the city and the settlements on the outskirts as well. The bus branch, on 1st January 1963, was taken over by the current predecessor of the Tisza Volán Rt. on ministerial order without offering any explanation. The urban tramway freight transport started slightly declining from the end of 1950s, and then later from the middle of 1960s, this process was more considerable. From 1st January 1968, the freight haulage was only limited to serving the food-processing factory, then in 1971 it came to a complete end. The tariff system of the Szeged public transport was too complicated. From 1 January 1964 on, the Szeged Transport Company was the first to introduce a simplified tariff system. Parallel to changing the tariff system, some other traffic measures were also introduced. Because of the shortage of conductors, the company introduced a traffic partially lacking conductors meaning that there was no conductor in the first tramcar, thus only passengers with season ticket or advanced purchased ticket were allowed to travel. In Szeged, tram traffic without conductors was introduced on 1st October 1974.

In the 1960s, the camp of criticizing and opposing tramway traffic grew stronger. There was the national bus-manufacturing basis meeting needs without limitations, the gas oil cost only fillérs, and at that time nobody talked about environmental protection. The Ministry of Transport and Post introduced transport development directives, and these documents proposed the termination of tram tracks. The policy papers suggested the operation of other means of transport that meant running buses. It maybe owed to the oil crisis, that the elimination process in 1974 came to a halt, and what is more, promising and great scale modernizing started taking place. On 29th April 1979, traffic on the first trolleybus line was launched. The dynamic development of the trolleybus traffic used up the finances of the city and the transport company as well. The electric transport branch has come to a standstill for nearly two decades, although without the tramway traffic the public transport of the city could hardly be imagined. The fleet of the vehicles is quite old, the tramcars neither technically nor aesthetically live up to the desired standards. The Szeged Transport Company Ltd. became the property of the city with its 38 tramcars. The tramcars having run and serving for decades became downgraded, and should be replaced by newer, more modern, beautiful and comfortable ones. The reconstruction and upgrading the vehicles started in 1996.

In the first phase of the reconstruction, the company started running 13 new, single Tatra tramcars. The new Tatras took over the old, articulated FVV tramcars serving on the number 1 line. In the same time of the construction of the Szeged Plaza Mall, the reconstruction of the number 1 line Szeged-Rókus turning terminal became necessary, and this construction work took place in 2000. The old, run down tracks were replaced by modern tracks, and the terminal adjusting to the main entrance of the Szeged Plaza was also constructed. Also in 2000, the first 10-year-old trolleybuses arrived in Szeged with which the SZKT wished to replace the old Russian ZIU trolleybuses. The company purchased seven, used Skoda brand trolleybuses in 2001 that were inaugurated in a ceremony after renewing them. This was the time when, in the principle of equal chances, the first low-deck trolleybus started operating in Szeged.

Because of the increasing number of passengers and in order to provide more frequent services, in 2005, the Szeged Transport Company Ltd. started running the new, KT4D Tatra tramcars in order to replace the old and outdated FVV tramcars, and hopefully seven more articulated tramcars can start their operation in the near future.

By placing environmental awareness to the fore, in the last few years the need for public transport causing lower pollution especially for ones operated with electricity has increased. The main aim of the company is to create a uniform fleet of vehicles considering both car-body and electric drive, furthermore, to increase the number of low-deck vehicles. Our guiding principle is to operate tramcars and trolleybuses that are more passengers friendly and aesthetic with lower energy use.