In 2002, passenger traffic between Wörth and Lauterbourg was reactivated, although no through services currently run through to Strasbourg.

[3] Instead, the Palatine Ludwig Railway (Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn) was built between 1847 and 1849 from Rheinschanze (Ludwigshafen from 1853) to Bexbach; this mainly served the transport of coal.

There were two options for discussion: one would run from Neustadt via Landau to Wissembourg in Alsace and continue from there to Strasbourg.

[5] After the Schifferstadt–Speyer branch line, which was opened by the Palatine Ludwig Railway Company (Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn-Gesellschaft) in 1848, was extended to Germersheim in 1864, plans were developed to continue it through to Wörth and along the Rhine to Lauterbourg.

The latter was open-minded to the plan and reported on French plans to build a trunk line on the Lille – Thionville – Sarreguemines – Lauterbourg – Maxau – Karlsruhe route, as part of a link from London to Vienna and the east.

As a result of the Franco-Prussian War, France had to cede Alsace-Lorraine to the newly founded German Empire.

[6] At first, the Reichstag had resolved that the Alsace section had to be built and operated by a private company, but it was taken over directly by the imperial government for strategic reasons.

[7] Various railway engineers produced a general draft for the route from Wörth to Lauterbourg in 1872 and 1873 and then presented it to the Bavarian government.

[7] The express trains from Berlin to Strasbourg, which had previously run via the Neustadt–Wissembourg railway, now ran via Speyer and Germersheim, as this journey was shorter and there was now sufficient capacity on the line.

[12] After Alsace was ceded to France as a result of the First World War, the French section of the line became the property of the newly founded Réseau ferroviaire d’Alsace-Lorraine, while the Palatine section became part of Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR).

The latter allocated its section to the newly created Reichsbahndirektion (railway division) of Ludwigshafen in 1922.

In addition, DR ordered that the long-distance services run from now on through Baden to keep them within their own territory as long as possible, thus making the Strasbourg–Wörth line less important.

[12] On 1 February 1937, the German section came under the management of the Karlsruhe railway division, since the one in Ludwigshafen was dissolved two months later.

[13] On 1 January of the following year, the French section of the line came to the newly established Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF).

At the same time, cross-border traffic has been severely limited; Berg (Pfalz), the last station on the German side, was the terminus for rail services.

Operations of the Ludwigshafen–Strasbourg express, which had mainly served the French armed forces, was terminated on 11 June 1980, ending cross-border passenger services on the line.

During this period the transport of dry casks over the line to and from the nuclear reprocessing facilities at La Hague and Sellafield occasionally took place, which led regularly to protests by nuclear power opponents and resulted in a corresponding media presence.

In the course of the rail reform, the section of line in Germany became the property of Deutsche Bahn.

From 1999 until the end of 2002, excursion trains ran on the line from Wörth to Lauterbourg without intervening stops on Sundays and holidays from April to October.

Since the prohibition of so-called nuclear reprocessing in 2005, transports of spent fuel no longer take place.

However, highly radioactive waste packaged in glass chips (in particular from the French La Hague reprocessing plant to the Gorleben storage unit) continue to be carried along this line[citation needed].

In 2010, a train scheduled for this route with nuclear waste from La Hague had to be diverted at short notice via Strasbourg and Kehl, because the track near the station was blocked by a sit-in involving several hundred opponents of nuclear power[citation needed].

It is planned to abolish the need to change trains at Lauterbourg, which currently still exists, by using the modern SNCF diesel multiple units of the Lauterbourg–Strasbourg on the route to Wörth.

[16] This is only possible with the use of SNCF diesel multiple units that are approved ro run on both the German and the French rail network.

This idea, however, has not been pursued so far, since it is feared in France that it would encourage Strasbourg residents to shop in Karlsruhe.

Its entrance building, which no longer plays a role in railway operations, is also a protected monument.

Its entrance building is decorated in the Prussian style of the Imperial Railways in Alsace-Lorraine.

From 1895, it was also part of the strategic railway, which came from Rastatt and ran parallel to the line to Strasbourg from Roppenheim and continued to Haguenau.

[18] In the Deutsche Bahn timetable, the section reactivated in 2002 is designated as the Bienwaldbahn and listed under table 677.1.