The original station of the baroque town of Bruchsal opened on 10 April 1843 as part of the Karlsruhe–Heidelberg section of the old Baden main line, which eventually connected Mannheim via Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Baden-Baden and Freiburg to Basel and was initially built with 1600 mm (5 ft 3 in) broad gauge.

The station gained more importance with the opening on 1 October 1853 of the Württemberg Western Railway (Westbahn), which connected Stuttgart and Bruchsal.

Since Baden's broad gauge was not compatible with its neighbours, it became concerned by the loss of lucrative transit traffic.

Therefore, in 1854 the Baden lines were converted to 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge in just four months, after which the tracks of the two Bruchsal stations could be linked.

The branch line was operated at first by the Baden Local Railway Company (Badischen Lokal Eisenbahn Aktiengesellschaft, BLEAG).

In 1932, it was taken over by the German Railway Operating Company (Deutsche Eisenbahn-Betriebsgesellschaft, DEBG), as BLEAG had to file for bankruptcy during the Great Depression.

As throughout Germany, east-west traffic had reduced significance and long distance passenger services no longer ran between Bruchsal and Saarbrücken.

Traffic on the branch lines to Menzingen and Hilsbach decreased significantly in the postwar period, so that on 1 October 1960 the Tiefenbach–Hilsbach section was shut down for passenger services, due to lack of demand, twelve days after the derailment of a freight train.

In 1963 the state-owned Southwest German Transport Company (Südwestdeutsche Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft, SWEG) took over the branch lines.