Airdrie station opened in 1862, and was originally known as Airdrie South. The name only changed to plain Airdrie almost 100 years later, in 1952. In the 2000s, the station was refurbished as part of a £300m project to improve public transport links between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Regular services from Airdrie now include four trains per hour to and from Edinburgh Waverley, and six trains per hour to and from Glasgow Queen Street - two connect with Helensburgh Central, two with Milngavie and two with Balloch.
The centre of Airdrie is less than ten minutes' walk from the station, and the Airdrie Observatory - one of only four public observatories in the UK - is housed in the library on Wellwynd, only five minutes away. The Airdrie Golf Club, established in 1877, is just over two miles north of the station, about half an hour by bus.