On 1 December 1871, the
Halle-Sorau-Guben Railway Company (
Halle-Sorau-Gubener Eisenbahn, HSGE) opened the
Cottbus–
Falkenberg/Elster section after its extension towards
Guben was opened earlier the same year. Six months later, on 1 May 1872, trains ran via Falkenberg to
Eilenburg and, two more months later, on 30 June 1872, operations on the line were extended as far as
Halle. It did not connect with many of the former Prussian private railways that it crossed, as there were no at-grade connections with the existing lines, but they were mainly crossed on grade-separated crossings. There are two two-level stations in
Doberlug-Kirchhain (at the intersection with the
Berlin–Dresden railway) and at Falkenberg/Elster (intersection with the line of the former
Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company). In Delitzsch, it built
its own station separately from the existing station. On 1 November 1874, the connecting line
from Eilenburg to Leipzig was opened. The line was doubled by 1911. By the end of the Second World War, the line was an important connection from Central Germany to
Silesia. A number of through coaches ran to and from western Germany. Leipzig was also served with through coaches via Eilenburg.
Between 1945 and 1990 station The role of the route changed after 1945. Due to the new
East German border along the
Oder–Neisse line, the importance of traffic heading east decreased, but gradually new passenger and freight traffic flows resulted from the growing industrial centres in the region, such as Cottbus, Guben and
Eisenhüttenstadt. The second track, which had been removed after 1945 as
war reparations, was rebuilt by 1970. The railway was electrified between 1984 and 1989 in several sections. A number of long-distance trains ran on the Cottbus–Eilenburg section, continuing towards Leipzig, until 1990. For example, services between
Frankfurt (Oder) and
Frankfurt (Main) and between Cottbus and
Erfurt. Similarly, there was an international express service from Leipzig to
Kraków. Typical stops for long-distance services were
Calau,
Finsterwalde, Doberlug-Kirchhain, Falkenberg (Elster),
Torgau and Eilenburg. The Eilenburg–Halle section, however, primarily served regional passenger and freight traffic, at least since 1945.
After 1990 In 1992, express services on the line began to be operated at regular intervals, with through trains (
Durchgangszug) operating every two hours. An
InterRegio service was established in 1995 with trains running from Cottbus to
Leipzig, continuing via
Magdeburg and
Schwerin to
Lübeck. In 1999 every second train, and a year later all trains, were replaced by
Regional-Express services. == Passengers==