In addition to the industrial Mulde valley, other towns such as Borna, Burgstädt, Lausigk (Bad Lausick) and Limbach would have benefited from the line.

However, the Saxon government showed little interest in this new rail connection, while the city of Borna built a short branch line to the Leipzig–Hof railway at its own expense.

The Kieritzsch–Borna line was extended to Chemnitz in 1872, but also proposed direct Leipzig–Chemnitz connections from Leipzig via Lausigk and/or Grimma were not implemented.

The general route ran through level terrain and did not cause any problems for construction, but several very swampy places had to be crossed south of Liebertwolkwitz.

After the war, it was initially planned to dismantle the Liebertwolkwitz–Bad Lausick section of the line for reparations to the Soviet Union.

[8] Since about 1970, many of the mechanical full-barrier level-crossing gates, in particular those on the open line, have been replaced by systems using train-operated half-barriers and stoplights.

Between June 2003 and December 2004, the Leipzig to Chemnitz via Bad Lausick line was modernised to increase the maximum speed to 160 km/h.

After options for upgrading the rail infrastructure between Leipzig and Chemnitz on the Leipzig–Neukieritzsch–Borna–Geithain–Chemnitz route had been examined several times between 2008 and 2012 and the announcement of the beginning of the preliminary planning for the upgrade of the line via Borna,[12][13][14] the state of Saxony and Deutsche Bahn signed a contract for the extension and electrification of the Chemnitz–Leipzig line in January 2013.

[15] As a result of the preliminary investigation, the route via Bad Lausick (and thus the inclusion of the Leipzig–Geithain railway) was selected as the preferred option.

The main advantages of this option were a travel time of 50 minutes and convenient connections for passengers to the other long-distance lines in Leipzig Hauptbahnhof.

In July 2013, the State of Saxony and Deutsche Bahn signed a planning agreement for the further upgrade and the electrification of the Leipzig–Chemnitz railway.

[17] In addition to the electrification, the restoration of the second track on the Leipzig–Geithain railway is also planned between Leipzig Werkstättenstraße and Liebertwolkwitz as well as four selective measures to increase the speed of the line.

This includes track laying near Lauterbach-Steinbach station and the accompanying replacement of a level crossing by a road overpass.

[19] The State of Saxony intends to commission the other projects in a timely manner and to finance them on a pro rata basis.

With the Regional-Express RE 6 (Chemnitz-Leipzig-Express) (operated since the timetable change in December 2015 by Transdev Regio Ost (eastern region) under the marketing name of Mitteldeutsche Regiobahn (Central German Regional Railway)) there is an hourly, fast train service between Leipzig Hbf, Bad Lausick and Geithain.

The buildings consisted of an entrance building, a goods shed, two mechanical signal boxes of the Bruchsal I design (which controlled, in addition to numerous sets of points, three mechanical full-barrier systems at level crossings), a signal and telecommunication workshop and an official residence.

Freight trains for local delivery and pick-up (Übergabezügen) also operated from Liebertwolkwitz to the former sidings at Holzhausen (Sachs) station that were closed in 1971.

The facilities consist merely of a platform on the ground, which had been prepared for the construction of two tracks, (this was demolished in the 1920s) and a massive waiting room.

The two-storey[23] entrance building housed baggage handling and the ticket office as well as the main signal box "Bn".

In the 1930s, the town, which had only about 700 inhabitants, was served by long-distance services with several express trains passing through the station, which had three mainline tracks.

The island platform on the main tracks was demolished with the 2003–2004 upgrade, thus only every second of the hourly trains could stop at Belgershain station.

Lausigk developed into a health resort, as a result of its railway connection, among other things, although, until the end of the First World War, the express trains running along the line did not stop there.

After the upgrade, Hopfgarten had three tracks with nine sets of points, an entrance building, a signal box and a freight shed.

[26] Because of the need to control the sequence of trains to make the timetable work effectively, a block post (Blockstelle) was established in Hopfgarten in about 2010.

Geithain also became of great importance in freight transport since large quantities of building materials from nearby brickworks and quarries have been loaded at the station since the end of the 19th century.