The so-called Münster-Lengnau-Bahn (Moutier–Lengnau railway, MLB) was built to shorten the Delémont–Biel line and thus also the travel time from Biel to both Basel and Belfort.

The Berner Alpenbahn-Gesellschaft Bern–Lötschberg–Simplon (Bernese Alpine Railway Company Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon) built the MLB to improve access to its Lötschberg line.

The cause of the disaster was poor maintenance of the bridge and the buckling of a strut that was inadequate for increasingly heavy trains.

The dining car rolled on for a kilometer on both tracks and passed the short double-track Choindez I tunnel.

[3] From Basel, the line runs past the Wolf freight yard and in the Birseck area through the suburbs of Münchenstein, Arlesheim, Dornach and Aesch.

During the First and Second World War, the two railway bridges over the Birs in the Chessiloch area were guarded by Swiss Army troops.

After leaving the plain of Delémont, the line reaches Courrendlin and from there passes through the cliffs at Choindez and Roches.

South of Moutier the trains on the MLB route run through the 8,578 metre-long Grenchenberg Tunnel, after which Grenchen Nord station is reached.