The single-track, non-electrified branch line runs from Göttingen to Bodenfelde through the Weser Uplands.

The route runs approximately from the southeast to the northwest, with important intermediate stations at Lenglern and Adelebsen.

On the western edge of the Leine valley it passes under Autobahn 7 and rises briefly to Lödingsen.

In the mid-1860s, a connection between Göttingen and the Frederick William Northern Railway (Friedrich-Wilhelms-Nordbahn) at Bad Karlshafen via Adelebsen was discussed.

This line would have been useful for long-distance traffic, as the Halle–Kassel railway was extended via Arenshausen to Göttingen in 1867, but an extension to Kassel was very controversial.

Among other things, the western extension of the narrow-gauge Garte Valley Railway (Gartetalbahn, connecting Duderstadt and Göttingen) via Adelebsen and Uslar to Schönhagen was planned from 1897 (the last section of this route was similar to the later Uslar–Schönhagen (Han) railway.

On 25 June 1904, the Prussian parliament approved a package of several secondary and light railways, including one from Göttingen to Bodenfelde.

Supposedly damage in Emmenhausen arose when the U.S. troops participated in the making of a film about the war and they set alight wagons carrying ammunition.

For the construction of the Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway, the former access route to Göttingen station was demolished.

In December 2005, after prolonged pressure on Deutsche Bahn and the Lower Saxony state transport company (Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen), they reopened the station in Lenglern, which had been closed in 1988.

[2] The line, which was still working with mechanical signalboxes in Adelebsen and Bodenfelde, has been controlled by an electronic interlocking in Göttingen since October 2008.

Maps and directions to buses or taxis for the onward journey are missing at the halts at Leglern, Lödingsen, Offensen (Kr.

The trains continue from Bodenfelde on the Solling Railway to Ottbergen, where there are good connections both towards Paderborn and towards Höxter, Holzminden and Kreiensen.

A Paderborn–Kreiensen/Göttingen service was established with sections uncoupling in Ottbergen (thus offering a transfer-free connection between Paderborn and Göttingen) at the timetable change in December 2015 (RB 84/RB 85).

Until 1989, an Eilzug (semi-fast) service ran between the Ruhr and Göttingen, which was upgraded to an express (D-Züge) in 1983.