The Nuremberg-Bamberg line is a German railway connecting the Bavarian city of Nuremberg with Bamberg via Fürth, Erlangen, Forchheim.

After the Bavarian parliament had passed a bill for the construction of the Ludwig South–North Railway on 25 August 1843, work began on the line later in the year.

The original route between Nuremberg and Erlangen, parallel to the Ludwig-Danube-Main Canal and east of Fürth was changed between 1862 and 1876 with the construction of the line to Würzburg and the so-called Furth arc.

During trial runs, passenger trains between Bamberg and Forchheim reached a speed of 200 km/h for the first time in Germany.

It runs south of the suburbs of Gostenhof and Eberhardshof and the container terminal and the Nuremberg West depot, through the Rothenburger Strasse station and then crosses the border between Nuremberg and Fürth and the Frankenschnellweg and finally reaches Fürth Hauptbahnhof.

Then, the route curves to the left between Stadeln and Herboldshof to Vach station, then passes to the east side of the Frankenschnellweg and continues to Eltersdorf and Erlangen.

After Erlangen station the line passes through the 306-metre Burgberg Tunnel and continues parallel to the Frankenschnellweg through Bubenreuth, Baiersdorf and Kersbach to Forchheim.

After the line crosses the Bundesstraße 505 it touches the southern foothills of the Hauptsmoorer national forest before running into Bamberg station.

Long-distance passenger traffic consists of hourly Intercity-Express services on the Munich – Nuremberg – Leipzig – Berlin (– Hamburg) route.

In regional transport, the line served hourly by several Regional-Express and Nuremberg S-Bahn services (as of December 2014).

This was built as part of the Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway project and the 38 kilometre-long Nuremberg S-Bahn line to Forchheim.

[6] Construction began in March 2008 to widen the embankment for 1.75 km between Nuremberg and Fürth so that two additional tracks could be built south of the existing line.

Construction work on the "Furth arc" (Fürther Bogen) near Hauptbahnhof Fürth began in 2008.

The route was disputed between the city of Fürth and Deutsche Bahn, but the Federal Railway Authority (Eisenbahn-Bundesamt) approved the plan on 30 January 2014.

[13] According to the Bavarian Ministry of Transport in December 2010, the planned new S-Bahn route, which would run via Schmalau (the so-called Fürther Verschwenk, Fürth pivot), would have a benefit-cost ratio of 1.18.

By contrast, the two routes along the existing line favoured by the city of Fürth are not economically viable and thus ineligible for funding.

[17] The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig declared the S-Bahn pivot to the north of Fürth to be unlawful and not enforceable on 9 November 2017.

[18] On 8 April 2015, the state and DB signed a planning agreement to connect the three-kilometre section temporally with points from 2019.

The upgrade between Eltersdorf and Erlangen was to be completed along with the Fürth arc, including the Stadeln and Steinach stations, by the end of 2016.

[6] Furthermore, an approximately 13 kilometre-long freight bypass line will be built in a tunnel below the Nuremberg and Fürth urban area by 2021.

[6][27] During a blockade of the Bamberg–Forchheim section from 1 August to 14 September 2009, the stations of Buttenheim and Strullendorf were rebuilt for the S-Bahn and connected to the new tracks between Nuremberg and Fürth.