| 1883 | Charlotte Street Railway Company chartered to operate a horse-drawn streetcar line, the City's first form of public transit. |
| 1935 | Duke Power, who operated the electric streetcar system at the time, made the decision to transition from streetcars to buses. The fare was 7 cents. |
| 1998 | A referendum in Mecklenburg County to dedicate ½ cent sales tax for transit is approved 58% to 42%. |
| 2000 | The Charlotte Area Transit System is created as a department of the City of Charlotte laying the framework for the City's current transit system. |
| 2002 | The 2025 Transit System Plan is adopted. A first iteration of our current transit plan. |
| 2006 | CATS updated the 2025 Transit System Plan to our current plan, the 2030 Transit System Corridor Plan. |
| 2007 | The LYNX Blue Line, North Carolina's first light rail line, opened to ridership above projections. |
| 2009 | Sprinter Enhanced Bus begins providing direct bus service between Uptown and Charlotte Douglas International Airport. |
| 2015 | Phase 1 of the CityLYNX Gold Line Streetcar opens connecting two historic neighborhoods. |
| | The City of Charlotte receives a Federal TIGER grant to begin track, signals, and structures work on the Charlotte Gateway Multi-Modal Station. |
| 2016 | MTC adopts light rail transit for the LYNX Silver Line in the southeast, replacing previously adopted bus rapid transit. |
| | CATS launches "Envision My Ride", a total redesign of the bus network. |
| 2018 | The LYNX Blue Line Extension opens connecting the University of North Carolina – Charlotte Campus through Uptown creating a 18-mile light rail alignment. |
| | Over 40 bus routes and 700 bus stops were changed as part of the Envision My Ride restructure. |
| 2019 | CATS made several changes to the 2030 plan with the adoption of a 26-mile east/ west LYNX Silver Line, extending the Blue Line to Ballantyne, and adopting bus rapid transit for North Mecklenburg. |
| 2020 | The LYNX Silver Line project enters pre-project development. |
| | CATS continues work on Envision My Ride to increase system efficiency through the "Bus Priority Study". |