[2] The line is also the most northern section of Pan-European railway corridor IV connecting Dresden and Istanbul.

The line is the fastest link from the Czech Republic to the North Sea ports and as such very busy with freight.

Direct EuroCity trains on the Elbe Valley line connect Berlin with Prague and Budapest.

Shortly after the completion of the Leipzig–Dresden railway in 1839, the first plans were developed to continue the route south towards Vienna.

Saxony and Austria agreed to this in a treaty signed on 9 August 1842, which provided for a construction time of eight years.

The line's old Bohemian station (Böhmische Bahnhof) was demolished and in its place the new Dresden Hauptbahnhof was built.

CSD served its own section of the line from then on with passenger trains from Děčín to Dolní Žleb.

On 20 May 1945 German and Czech railway workers were advised that rail operations would resume across the re-established border.

Large parts of the German railway tracks were dismantled in the course of 1946, as reparations to the Soviet Union.

From the late 1950s, an international express service, called Vindobona ran on the line between Berlin and Vienna.

In order to operate the route continuously using electrical traction, a dual-system locomotive (class 180) was developed.

Until 1990, suburban trains operated to Schöna at approximate 60-minute intervals, starting in the late 1980s on the service from Meissen-Triebischtal.

The political changes in the former Communist countries in South-Eastern Europe in 1990 led to a sharp decline in traffic on the line.

[4] On 7 June 1995 Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria signed an agreement to upgrade the line between Dresden, Prague and Vienna.

In order to implement this agreement, two new intercity rail tracks were built between Dresden and Pirna, designed for 160 km/h operations.

In the winter sports season trains run on the line to the Müglitz Valley Railway and Altenberg.

Since the timetable change in May 1999, there are also several daily connections with the regional trains of České dráhy that run between Bad Schandau and Děčín, operating as Elbe-Labe-Sprinter.