During the construction period the decision was taken to extend the line to the village of East Kilbride, at an additional cost of £45,000.

When the Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway (L&AR) line was opened between Cathcart and Neilston in 1903 a south curve connection was built so that trains could run direct from Blantyre via East Kilbride and Neilston (High) to Ardrossan.

East Kilbride transformed from a village to a New Town from 1947 onward, and this gave new significance to the branch line.

However the station, located to suit the core of the earlier village, was not well placed for the centre of the New Town, and there have been numerous initiatives to extend the railway accordingly.

[1][page needed] None of these has been implemented, and the dispersed nature of the community's housing, and changing travel habits, mean that the station serves better now as a railhead, than as a terminal to which people might walk, and at present, while there is no active proposal to extend, preparatory work began in 2021 for the electrification of the line and its reconstruction with double track throughout.

At the present day there is a half-hourly interval passenger service on the line, operated by Class 156 diesel multiple units.

The line is double track from Busby Junction to Busby, and then single to East Kilbride; there is a passing loop ("Hairmyres Loop") immediately on the East Kilbride side of Hairmyres station.

An east curve, not referred to by Paterson, is also shown, and is also disconnected at the Clarkston end; it is likely it was never connected as a through route.