The station was opened by the Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway on 1 May 1903, as part of an extension from that company's previous northern terminus at to a junction with the Cathcart District Railway at Cathcart. The route was completed through to (on what is now the West Coast Main Line) the following year, giving the L&AR a route between Lanarkshire and the coast at Ardrossan independent of the Glasgow and South Western Railway. Though the line carried freight and express boat trains from Adrossan to Glasgow Central, Muirend was only ever served by local suburban workings. A connection was laid in south of the station down to the Busby Railway at around the same time as the L&AR main line was opened, but it was never used for through traffic (only for wagon storage) and was disconnected by 1907 (though the brick viaduct it used still stands to this day), and only the crossover underneath the road bridge immediately south of the station remains of the kilometre long branch. Through passenger traffic over this route declined significantly after the 1923 Grouping and regular passenger trains were withdrawn beyond in 1932.