The long-distance tracks follows the historical route built between 1860 and 1862 by the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company as an extension of its trunk line between Elberfeld and Dortmund.

The Cologne-Minden Railway Company (German, old spelling: Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, CME) planned the route of its trunk line, built from 1845 to 1847, to avoid the construction costs of a line through the very hilly land along the valleys of the Ruhr and Wupper rivers and in order to minimise operating costs.

Between 1847 and 1849 Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, BME) built its own trunk line in the highly industrialised area in the Wupper valley and the Bergisches Land and decided to extend it to the west through the area between the Ruhr and the Emscher rivers.

In 1864 the BME took over the management of the lines of the Aachen-Dusseldorf-Ruhrort Railway Company (formally the Königliche Direction der Aachen-Düsseldorf-Ruhrorter Eisenbahn).

As part of the establishment of the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn in the early 1970s, the line was rebuilt to have at least four-tracks continuously.

On 23 September 1973, the four line section between Mülheim and Mülheim-Styrum was inaugurated and on 10 December 1973 it was extended to Duisburg Hbf.

With the decline of rail freight traffic after World War II on the line much of this track was subsequently abandoned.

Some of it was brought back into operation as part of the S-Bahn or with the construction of the new long-distance tracks between Witten and Dortmund.

In recent years only series 515 battery railcars ran on the section between Duisburg-Meiderich Sud and Mülheim (Ruhr)-Styrum, but these services stopped on 1 April 1995 and the line was closed on 1 May 1996.

The southern platform of Duisburg-Meiderich Sud station, the embankment to the east and the bridge over the Rhine-Herne Canal were immediately removed.