In addition to the main Anhalt Railway, the BAE built a network of important railway connections between Berlin and the northern parts of the Kingdom of Saxony, the Prussian Province of Saxony, and the duchy of Anhalt, with a total length of 430 kilometres (270 mi) at its apex.

In 1859, the trip between Berlin and Halle/Leipzig was considerably shortened with the opening of the direct connection between Wittenberg and Bitterfeld.

Some of the first express trains traveled from Berlin via Köthen to Halle, Leipzig, Frankfurt am Main and Munich, as well as to Dresden, Prague, and Vienna via Jüterbog-Röderau.

Starting in 1923, one of the first long-distance express trains (FD-Zug) traveled from Berlin via Halle and Erfurt to Frankfurt.

[2] The property of the Anhalt railway suffered major damage during World War II, and was only repaired in critical areas.

It was not until 1951 with the completion of the first sections of the Berlin outer ring, that direct connections were possible coming from Halle or Leipzig.

Express services, some coming from the Baltic Sea coast, ran via Halle and Erfurt to Meiningen, via Leipzig to Zwickau and Aue as well as to Gera and Saalfeld.

Trains also left the network of the Reichsbahn and ran from Berlin to Karlsbad, and from Rostock to Munich.

List of City-Express-trains (Ex) on the Berlin–Halle railway (as of: 31 May 1991) The Anhalter Bahn lost some of its significance with German reunification.

The transit trains lost their special status with the removal of border crossings between East and West Germany, and the City Express service was discontinued on 31 May 1991.

[3] The first Intercity and InterRegio trains ran at off-peak times, and did not present a service improvement, and synchronized schedules were not introduced for several years.

[6] Initially, a five-kilometre (3.1 mi) section between Diedersdorf and Genshagener Heide on the Berlin Outer Ring, which then carried traffic towards the Anhalt Railway, was equipped for 160 km/h (99 mph)[7] and was put into operation on 22 December 1992, after five months of construction.

[4] A variety of line improvements were made during the development, including the elimination of all level crossings and the modernisation of all stations.

A total of €1.657 billion was invested in the upgrade of the lines between Halle, Leipzig and Berlin up to the end of 2013.

In addition, 18 bridges and, among other things, the stations served by regional services at Großbeeren, Teltow and Lichterfelde Ost were rebuilt.

[13] The upgrading of the mainline tracks of the Anhalt Railway for Intercity-Express (ICE) trains towards Leipzig, Nuremberg and Munich was put into service on 28 May 2006.

According to Deutsche Bahn, the number of ICE passengers on the line rose by 45 percent between early 2005 and May 2007.

[16] On 1 August 2012, the Federal Railway Authority banned operations on a 15 km (9.3 mi) section between Halle and Bitterfeld after the Y-shaped steel sleepers installed in the slab track were so badly rusted that the track resistance was at risk.

[17] The ballasting of the sleepers and covering material to reduce noise meant that rain water was not drained away and led to corrosion.

[23] The market for long-distance travel between the area of Berlin and Halle (all modes) according to Deutsche Bahn amounts to around 2,500 trips per day.

[24] During 2007, the first full year of operations over the upgraded line, the shortest scheduled journey time for an off-peak ICE train without intermediate stops running to the north between Leipzig and Berlin Südkreuz was 57 minutes, while an off-peak train stopping at Wittenberg took 65 minutes.

Because of line closure between Bitterfeld and Halle and the resulting detour the scheduled travel times was extended by up to 15 minutes.

While the Ludwigsfelde–Dennewitz section, which was controlled by the Berlin Reichsbahn division, was equipped until 1978 with track plan interlockings (including the first interlocking of the GsIIISp68 class in Jüterbog station) and automatic block signalling, the Niedergörsdorf–Leipzig section, which was controlled by the Halle Reichsbahn division, continued to be signalled with conventional systems.

Switch 03 at the northern end of Bitterfeld station thus allows trains from Leipzig to Berlin to pass through on the line from Halle without reducing speed.

[26] The point blades are each 59 metres long and weigh 120 tons, including their support mechanism.

In preparation for the installation of the European Train Control System (ETCS), a 15 km test section between Bitterfeld and Gräfenhainichen was put into full operation in 2001.

[27] To adapt the control system of the Deutsche Bahn to the newly agreed European Standard, ETCS Level 2 was installed on part of this line for the first time in Germany.

[30] A working definition of ETCS only became available much later than originally planned, delaying the achievement of a speed of 200 km/h that had been a target since the beginning of the project in 1992.