The only scheduled traffic on it now are passenger services operated as part of the Euregiobahn concept (which is aimed at improving regional rail passenger services in Aachen and southern Limburg) and freight operation to railway sidings on the southern part of the line, known as the Eschweiler Valley Railway (Eschweiler Talbahn) or Inde Valley Railway (Indetalbahn), as well as regional trains operated between Mönchengladbach Hauptbahnhof and Cologne on the short section of the line between Rheydt-Odenkirchen and Hochneukirch, which is now considered to be part of the Cologne–Mönchengladbach line.

The northern sections of the line from Hochneukirch to Frenz and from Rheydt-Geneicken to Rheydt-Odenkirchen are shut down and largely dismantled.

The concession for the construction and operation of the extension of the line to Hochneukirch, Jülich, Inden and Weisweiler to Eschweiler-Aue, with a total length of 48.77 km, was granted to the BME on 23 September 1870.

At the end of that year, a connection line to was built to the Stolberg AIE station of the Aachen Industrial Railway (Aachener Industriebahn AG) was put into operation, but soon after the nationalisation of the (nominally) private Prussian railway companies at the end of the 19th century, it was closed.

Anyway, the whole line was threatened in the medium term by its impending interruption by the expansions of two open-cut mines at Inden and Garzweiler.

This section, which was also used by trains between Mönchengladbach and Cologne and was still electrified in 1968, was finally closed in May 1985 and dismantled between Odenkirchen and Geneicken.

The former stations on this section are now served by buses of the Niederrheinische Versorgung und Verkehr (Lower Rhine Supply and Transport).

The Geneicken station building was bought in 1988 by the city of Mönchengladbach and now houses a restaurant and community space.

On 14 June 2009, Euregiobahn services commenced from Eschweiler Tal station to Langerwehe, continuing hourly to Düren from December 2009.