On the 39.5 km long branch line section from Nördlingen to Gunzenhausen, on the other hand, there is now a heritage railway, operated with a passenger train that is known as the Seenland-Express ("Lakeland Express") after the Franconian Lake District (Fränkischen Seenland).

[5] As of April 2022, the authority responsible for Bavarian rail passenger transport, the Bayerische Eisenbahngesellschaft, lists the Hesselbergbahn between Wassertrüdingen and Gunzenhausen as an extension of the RB 62 service from Pleinfeld as a planned reactivation in its allocation calendar.

[6] The Bavarian State Ministry for Housing, Construction and Transport assumed in April 2023 that local rail passenger services would resume in December 2024.

[9] The line has been integrated in the Nuremberg Regional Transport Association (Verkehrsverbund Großraum Nürnberg, VGN) since 27 September 1992.

[10] The town of Gunzenhausen's request to set up another station in Frickenfelden as part of the upgrading of the entire route was rejected.

[11] In mid-December 2015, Bayerische Eisenbahngesellschaft ("Bavarian Railway Company", BEG) announced that it would award transport services in the Nuremberg diesel network to DB Regio again.

According to BEG, the trains that commute between Pleinfeld and Gunzenhausen were to be extended to Wassertrüdingen as soon as the districts of Ansbach and Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen could present a viable infrastructure concept.

[3] Since October 2004, freight services have operated on the line connecting the factory of the cosmetics company, Schwarzkopf, in Wassertrüdingen with Nördlingen.