In the later decades of the nineteenth century, there was considerable further industrial development in areas not directly served by the earlier lines.

The following year it extended that line by a branch to Potterhill, and in doing so served a considerable area of industrial activity.

Unlike the G&SWR scheme, it was to continue beyond Barrhead, and was to join the Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway, authorised in the same Parliamentary session, at a junction between Neilston and Cathcart.

This section would give access for coal traffic from the Lanarkshire pits directly to Paisley, and was to be double track to handle the heavy trains.

The route had been designed to skirt existing heavily built up areas, and construction was easy except in the approaches to Barrhead and Paisley East: here the possible alignment was limited by the hilly topography, the River Levern, the existing Kilmarnock line, and the authorised G&SWR line.

Having subscribed two-thirds of the original capital of the company in 1898 the Caledonian put in a further £80,000 in 1900, and obtained an act of Parliament[which?]

The frequent trams, the convenience of stopping places in town and village centres, and the cheap fares were major advantages to which local railways could not respond.

The western section, from Paisley St James to Blackbyres and Lyon Cross was opened in 1905 for goods traffic only.

The eastern section suffered a similar fate; it was opened in 1906 from Paisley East station, some distance south of the Joint Line at Gallowhill, to Blackbyres.

However the six-inch Ordnance Survey map of 1915 (revised 1911) clearly shows both routes as double track with a full junction connection.

[10][page needed] Although the envisaged passenger service never ran, the line continued for many years to serve industrial premises; at the southern end this included the Arthurlie Dyeworks and a public goods yard at Barrhead South.

The Linwood Plant was not commercially successful, and the siding connection and therefore the whole of the Paisley and Barrhead District Railway closed on 21 October 1984.

The entire Paisley and Barrhead District Railway network was closed and the only remnant of its existence is the wide space between the tracks at Lyon Cross on what is now the Neilston line, intended for the junction station there.

Glenfield station was at the bottom of the hill, a short distance up Glenburn Road from where the cycle track ends.

[14][page needed] A rail tour operated by the Stephenson Locomotive Society visited the line on 1 September 1951.

[18][19] Rowand says: "Alas for the promoters of the railway, in the same year [as the line opened] the Paisley tramway system became electrified, offering a cheaper, more convenient mode of transport.