As of 26 May 1963 a shuttle train consisting of a class VT 2.09 railbus (known as the "piglet taxi") ran between Mahlow and Blankenfelde, connecting to services on the outer ring.

In local transport, trains ran approximately every hour between Schönefeld (bei Berlin) station and Wünsdorf, and some continued to Baruth.

After the fall of the Wall, the gap between Lichtenrade and Mahlow was closed for the S-Bahn and traffic to Blankenfelde was resumed on a single track on 31 August 1992.

[6] Occasionally, freight trains with compacted waste containers even ran on the S-Bahn track from the Gradestrasse transfer station to landfills south of Berlin.

From 2010 onwards, some Eurocity (EC) stops were introduced again in Elsterwerda, but these were not attractive for travellers to intermediate stations due to poor connection times.

[13] In 2013, according to Deutsche Bahn, a market volume of around 6,700 trips per day was estimated across all modes of transport between the metropolitan areas of Dresden and Berlin.

With scheduled stops in Doberlug-Kirchhain and Elsterwerda, this connects the Elbe-Elster-Land and parts of Lower Lusatia to the two major cities with short travel times.

The travel time of the Henschel-Wegmann train from 1936 to 1939 (100 minutes in the shortest case) has not yet been reached again, but the Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin was around 2 km south of today's Hauptbahnhof and therefore a little closer to Dresden.

In the long term, the travel time on the Berlin–Prague section should be reduced to three hours, which would also require the completion of a high-speed line from Dresden to Prague.

The plan included the construction of 45 railway and 15 road bridges, 99 culverts, 435 km (270 mi) of overhead lines and twelve electronic signal boxes.

[40] The Dresden–Friedrichstadt–Radebeul–Naundorf section of the line, which historically belonged to the Berlin-Dresden Railway, is not part of the current upgrade projects as it is predominantly used for freight traffic.

For this purpose, together with the VDE 9 project in connection with the upgrade of the Dresden railway junction, the Radebeul – Dresden-Neustadt line was restored to the four-tracks that existed before 1945 with a maximum speed of 160 km/h for the long-distance tracks.

After completion of the Böhla–Radebeul section as part of VDE 9, the travel time is expected to be shortened by a further five minutes,[34] but this was not foreseeable in 2017 due to the lack of a tunnel south of Böhla.

[45] The upgrade of the 14.2 km (8.8 mi)[45] long direct section between Südkreuz station and the southern outer ring (Blankenfelde) is intended to reduce travel time for long-distance passenger trains by around ten minutes.

[43][52] At the end of July 2000, Deutsche Bahn announced that it would postpone the development of the access route in Berlin until further notice in order to save costs.

[63] From 1998 onwards, the Berlin Senate also supported Lichtenrad's residents, who at the time included the later Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit, and interrupted the planning approval process that had just begun for two years.

[61] Lawsuits against the decision were filed by a recognised environmental association and three owners at the Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG) as the first and last instance, as well as an application for interim legal protection.

[70] On 2 December 2018, the transition zone (including ZBS) was extended to Blankenfelde, while maintaining the PZB on the shared line to Mahlow station.

[67] Following a decision by the Mediation Committee of the federal parliament to reduce subsidies in December 2003, numerous new construction and upgrade measures in the transport infrastructure, including those on the Berlin–Dresden railway line, were delayed.

As part of the first implementation stage, the upgrade would only took place from Doberlug-Kirchhain to around Hohenleipisch and between Wünsdorf and Neuhof with a total length of 21 km (13 mi) by the end of 2006.

To the extednt that building permits were available, the approximately 80 km (50 mi) long Wünsdorf – Hohenleipisch section was to be upgraded between 2012 and December 2014—with complete closures in sections—for a maximum speed of 200 km/h.

According to plans from October 2011, the approximately 80 km long Wünsdorf – Elsterwerda section was to be completely closed in 2014 in order to convert all level crossings to make them grade-separated.

[51] The state of Brandenburg announced in September 2013 that it would assume large parts of the municipalities' own contributions required under the Railway Crossing Act.

[51] Deutsche Bahn announced another delay in June 2013, according to which the full closure of the Wünsdorf–Elsterwerda section, originally planned for the 2016 annual timetable, was postponed to 2017.

At the beginning of September 2013, Deutsche Bahn wanted to discuss with the Federal Railway Authority and the transport ministries of Berlin and Brandenburg how the upgrade could be accelerated.

[46] At the end of November 2014, Deutsche Bau advertised the construction work for the reconstruction of the section between Neuhof and Hohenleipisch in the Official Journal of the European Union.

[99] The 73 km (45 mi) long section between Wünsdorf-Waldstadt and Elsterwerda was upgraded during a full closure of the line that lasted from 5 August 2016 to 9 December 2017.

At Uckro, the line crosses the closed Falkenberg–Beeskow railway and passes through two curves through the Gehren hills before continuing through the forests of Lower Lusatia to the Doberlug-Kirchhain two-level station.

From there it runs past the Bad Erna recreational lakes and from Rückersdorf through a wooded area towards Hohenleipisch station, located on a curve, and on to Elsterwerda.

Double-track connecting curves link the lines together and enable the transition from Berlin towards Dresden-Neustadt and from Leipzig towards Dresden-Friedrichstadt and in the opposite direction.