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The idea of rail transit in Calgary originated in a 1967 Calgary transportation study, which recommended a two-line metro system to enter service in 1978.

The original plans had called for two lines, a northwest-to-south line ( on a similar routing to the present-day Northwest and South lines ) between the original Banff Trail station ( at Crowchild Trail and Northland Drive, between the present-day Brentwood and Dalhousie stations ) and Southwood station ( at Southland Drive, roughly at the location of the present-day Southland station, with five stations in downtown underneath 7 Avenue ; and the west line, which ran from downtown to the community of Glendale, primarily along the 26 Avenue SW corridor.

A fourth line, a north central line running from downtown to Thorncliffe mostly along Centre Street was also envisioned, but was thought to be beyond the scope of the study.

However, a building boom in the 1970s had caused the heavy rail concept to fall out of favour due to the increased costs of construction, with light rail as its replacement.

LRT was chosen over dedicated busways and the expansion of the Blue Arrow bus service ( a service similar to bus rapid transit today ) because light rail has lower long-term operating costs and to address traffic congestion problems – indeed, the Blue Arrow service all but disappeared in 2000.