The Rhenish Railway Company (Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, RhE) entered into a contract with the Cologne-Crefelder Railway Company on 11 November 1859 to take over its route from Cologne to Krefeld on 1 July 1860, making it possible to extend the Left Lower Rhine line to the north with a connection to the Dutch rail network and the Dutch ports.

In 1856 the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, CME) had opened its line to Emmerich via Oberhausen (the Holland route), but it lacked rail connections to southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Even an offer by the Rhenish railway to build at its own expense the big bridges that would have been required over the Waal and the Rhine had no effect.

Until the nationalisation of the company in 1880, all RhE freight and passenger trains ran to the Dutch North Sea ports via the Kleve–Zevenaar route.

In contrast, on the left bank passenger services continued until 1960 and freight ran directly to a vegetable oil mill on the Rhine in Spyck until 1987.

From west to east, the Left Lower Rhine line was crossed by now disused railways in Goch, Geldern and Kempen.

The narrow gauge Geldern District Railway (Geldernsche Kreisbahn) was opened in 1901 and 1902 from Kempen via Straelen to Kevelaer to improve access to the agricultural land west of the Left Lower Rhine line; it was closed in 1934.

The Meerbusch-Osterath–Cleves section of the Left Lower Rhine line is served by a Regional-Express service, the Niers-Express (RE 10) on the Kleve–Krefeld–Düsseldorf route every 30 minutes during the day and evening from Monday to Friday and hourly on weekends and public holidays.

Since the Kleve–Geldern section has only one track, services of the Niers-Express running towards Krefeld have to stop for four minutes at the crossing stations of Bedburg-Hau and Weeze.

The Rhein-Münsterland-Express was formerly operated by DB Regio NRW, using push-pull trains that are composed of four double-deck coaches hauled by class 112 electric locomotives.