After restoring and securing the section between Ulmen and Kaisersesch, the Cross Eifel Railway was once again open to traffic from 26 April 2008.

[3] However, the cost estimate had to be corrected to €40 million in 2011 after a revision of the cost-benefit analysis, which meant that the reactivation of the overall route was no longer economically viable.

On the basis of the new figures, the municipality of Daun expressed its opposition to the reactivation of the Gerolstein–Daun–Kaisersesch section of the Cross Eifel Railway in December 2012.

Since 1 January 2013, the infrastructure of the Cross Eifel Railway has been partly closed to traffic, because train operations are not possible without a new bridge at Pelm.

[4] This also eliminates the steam trains operated by Lokschuppen Gerolstein; the associated Anheizparty ("heating party") was replaced by the Lokschuppen-Sommer ("locomotive shed summer").

[5] In the autumn of 2016, a separate cost-benefit analysis for the disused Kaisersesch–Gerolstein section was to be carried out on a basis that will allow local authorities and districts to decide on the future of the line.

The Ulmen–Kaisersesch section was finally returned to traffic after a comprehensive refurbishment in April 2008 for a railway station festival in Ulmen, but it is currently[when?]

Trans regio operated passenger services on the line, including the reactivated section between Mayen and Kaisersesch, with Regio-Shuttles from 28 May 2000 to about 13 December 2008.

This gives an approximately 30-minute cycle in both directions on the section between Mayen and Andernach, as well as significantly improving the accessibility of the Koblenz inner city from the stations of the Cross Eifel Railway.

At the end of 2012, the political committees rejected the investment in the rail infrastructure, so the VEB announced that from 2013 no excursions would run on this section of the line.

At the end of March 2013, it became known that the state of Rhineland-Palatinate would provide €13 million for the repair of the infrastructure to enable the tourist excursions to run again.