was an important junction station where northbound West Coast Main Line trains were split into separate portions for Glasgow, Edinburgh and (to a lesser extent) Stirling and Perth, and for the corresponding combining of southbound trains. However, the introduction of push-pull operation on the WCML and the availability of surplus HST sets for Cross Country traffic (as a result of the ECML electrification) largely eliminated this practice in the early 1990s. Apart from the sleeping car trains, express traffic through Carstairs now consists of fixed-formation trains which do not require to be remarshalled en route. As a result, few express trains now call at Carstairs. There were some local stopping services to Edinburgh and Glasgow, but they were relatively infrequent. Before December 2012, only two trains per day to North Berwick called, and only five trains to Glasgow (three trains went to Dalmuir and two to Central and one terminated at Motherwell). There were very large gaps in between trains with the two Edinburgh-bound trains calling at 07:49 and then again at 15:40; similarly, for the Glasgow trains there was a gap from 07:55 to 18:41. 2019 Prior to March 2020 on Monday to Saturdays, there was a roughly two-hourly service to both Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley (with a few longer gaps) for most of the day, with a few services extended to Ayr and North Berwick; the last northbound service from Edinburgh terminates at Motherwell. There were also a few extra trains operated by ScotRail to/from Glasgow Central Low Level which call at peak times. These operate to Motherwell, Garscadden and Dalmuir. These services do not run on Saturdays, so a slightly reduced service operates from the station on Saturday mornings, In addition, TransPennine Express also provide one train per day to Glasgow Central and one train per day to Liverpool Lime Street via Preston. 2021 As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the station has had its services significantly reduced, with large gaps in between trains during the day. On weekdays, there are eight trains per day from the station, with five running to Glasgow Central departing at 05:49, 07:39, 07:44, 08:10 and 18:21, and two trains running to Edinburgh Waverley departing at 07:49 and 20:32. The last northbound service at 23:59 terminates at Motherwell. All trains are operated by ScotRail with the exception of the 07:44 to Glasgow Central, which is operated by TransPennine Express. On