In 1998, a Mecklenburg County referendum was approved by citizens that enacted a 0.5% sales tax increase to improve public transportation in the area.

[9] After the founding of CATS, more express routes were added to the edges of Mecklenburg County and local bus service was expanded, especially to the fast-growing southern areas of Charlotte.

[13] CATS chief Ron Tober began the planning process for what would become the Lynx Blue Line in the early 2000s.

In 2007, the initial portion of the Blue Line opened, connecting the Uptown, South End, Scaleybark, Tyvola, and Arrowood neighborhoods.

[16] The initial phase of the Blue Line spurred an explosion of development along the rail corridor, particularly in South End.

[17] Shortly after the Blue Line opened, CEO Ron Tober, who had led CATS since its inception, retired.

[18] After Tober's departure, CATS hired Carolyn Flowers, who had previously headed the bus system in Los Angeles County.

[24] The initial line connected the Charlotte Transportation Center in Uptown to Hawthorne Lane and 5th Street, through the First Ward and Cherry neighborhoods.

[27][28] In September 2024, the city of Charlotte voted in approval of the purchase of the rail corridor for the Red Line from Norfolk Southern and a sales tax increase to support operations.

[32] CATS operates one bus rapid transit line, the Sprinter service from the CTC to Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

Announced on February 22, 2006, the name fits in with the city's cat theme (the NFL team is the Carolina Panthers and the NBA team was known as the Charlotte Bobcats when the name was chosen); also, "Lynx" is a homophone of "links", and was mainly chosen because the light rail is about "connectivity."

CATS rail service first began on June 28, 2004 with the Charlotte Trolley, operating three Birney-style replica streetcars between Atherton Mill and 9th Street.

Opened on November 24, 2007 and hailed as the first major rapid rail service of any kind in North Carolina, the line has 15 stations and ran 9.6 miles (15.4 km) between I-485/South Boulevard, near Pineville, and 7th Street, in Uptown Charlotte; the line was partly shared with the Charlotte Trolley from 2008–2010.

[42] The CityLynx Gold Line is a 4-mile modern streetcar route that runs from French Street to Sunnyside Avenue through central Charlotte.

After several delays, the second 2.5-mile (4.0 km) segment opened on August 30, 2021,[46] extending service to French Street in Biddleville and Sunnyside Avenue.

Original estimates for the vehicles was $3.5 million per car with the firms Bombardier, Siemens and Kinki Sharyo bidding for the final contract.

[54] The original order of 16 S70 Avanto vehicles, similar to those in operation on the METRORail system in Houston, Texas,[51] was delivered between 2006 and 2007; these cars are numbered 101–116.

[55] Testing of the vehicles began in August 2006 along a 1.3-mile (2.1 km) stretch of track between Tremont Avenue and the light rail maintenance facility off South Boulevard.

[56] In 2012, after only four years of operation, the original 16 vehicles underwent significant maintenance at the Siemens facility in California for an estimated cost of $400,000 each, having run by then for nearly 300,000 miles (480,000 km).

[57] In January 2014, CATS announced it would buy 22 more Siemens S70 light-rail vehicles for the Blue Line Extension at a cost of $96.2 million.

[48] From late 2021 to at least 2025, the original (Series 1) vehicles will undergo extensive mid-life overhauls in Sacramento at a total cost of $30–50 million.

The exterior is painted green and yellow, while the interior was wood, including oak, cherry, birch, and plywood.

The 1.5 acres (0.61 ha) site includes an open-air plaza and space to accommodate 8-10 small and regular-sized buses.

The facility is named after Rosa Parks, who was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott.

The committee recommended any sales tax increase be limited to 0.5 cent and other methods used to raise funds; some suggested methods included: Although build-out of the entire system has been estimated for completion by 2030,[77] by July 2015, the Charlotte Area Transit System reported it lacked the funds to support any future transit projects apart from the already budgeted 2.5-mile long Phase 2 segment of the CityLYNX Gold Line.

However, several issues had arisen that included ineligibility for federal funding and Norfolk Southern refusal to allow access to its right-of-way.

In 2019, after a reevaluation of the entire corridor, the CATS decided to move forward with a bus rapid transit (BRT) service instead, the I-77 Bus Rapid Transit, and shelve the commuter rail service, which was met with frustration by various city leaders and residents impacted by it.