It was planned to be connected with the forming European railway network at Austrian-Russian border, and besides passengers it was prepared for transporting coal from Dąbrowa Basin.

The road had commercial success, so Russia's rulers, headed by Nicholas I, decided to connect by railroad the two main Russian cities – Saint Petersburg and the former capital Moscow.

The earlier "experimental" Tsarskoye Selo railway (Tsarskoselskaya) in the middle had broader gauge of 1829 mm so it was incompatible.

[4][5] Putilov was the owner of the massive steel and machinery plant, founded in 1789, that is located on the same shore and had a big demand for transportation services.

In 1869 Putilov asked the imperial government to allow construction of a new railway line to connect his factory with existing water and railroad cargo hubs within the city.

It started working in 1857 and initially was also mainly a royal transport for travelling to Peterhof Palace, but used a then-standard Russian gauge and was gradually becoming a new mass-usage passenger and cargo line with vast plans of extension.

The path was intended to connect the industrial and transport objects at the sea shore to the ones at the inner Neva River coast on the approach to the city.

In the same year, Volkovskaya railway station was founded at the common stretch between Vitebsk and Moscow lines that later became an important local hub for cargo trains distribution.

New long-distance railway lines appeared on the opposite shore of Neva River heading to the then-Russian Grand Duchy of Finland and other northern and northeastern territories.

It ran almost strictly along the Pulkovo meridian straight from north to south and grew heavy traffic with popular tram lines on it.

On 3 December 1930, a freight train moving on the Connecting Line collided with an overcrowded tram that lead to 28 deaths and 19 injuries.

The Putilovskaya Line crosses the avenue 1.3 kilometers to the south via an overpass, and so train traffic was fully relocated there.

By the end of 1930s, the disastrous crossing with surrounding tracks was eliminated and the original Connecting Line ceased to exist.