The Wilhelmshaven–Oldenburg railway is a predominantly double-track, electrified main line in the northwest in the German state of Lower Saxony.

It linked the Prussian naval base in Wilhelmshaven (then called Heppens) and opened up the north of the Grand Duchy.

In August 2006 the Chairman of the Deutsche Bahn AG, Hartmut Mehdorn, gave a commitment to the then Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Christian Wulff to electrify and duplicate the entire route by 2010.

In November 2008, the upgrade was included in the federal government's "Workplace Program for Construction and Transport" (Arbeitsplatzprogramm Bauen und Verkehr).

The route between Rastede and Wilhelmshaven was closed to train traffic from the beginning of August 2011 until the timetable change in December 2012 due to work to build a second track as part of the construction of the JadeWeserPort.

While the duplication of the track and the upgrade for a maximum speed of 100 km/h was implemented by the end of 2012, the electrification of the line was initially postponed.

Regardless of the long planning period and the fact that the route was already double-tracked before the Second World War, the ground conditions presented the railway with considerable problems.

[7] The consultation process for electrification ran until 22 December 2015,[8] the costs of which are not included in the further increased construction budget.

In addition, between August 2019 and June 2021, Sande station was converted for the new train operations and upgraded to modern standards.

In 1938–1939, as a result of Wilhelmshaven's status as a navy base, the line was served, along with other services, by a high-speed diesel multiple unit (Schnellverkehrs-Triebwagen, abbreviated SVT) service called the SVT Hamburg, which ran each day from Wilhelmshaven to Berlin Lehrter Bahnhof and back via Oldenburg, Bremen, Langwedel, Uelzen, Salzwedel and Stendal.

There were also, seasonal, so-called guest worker trains from Yugoslavia and Greece to Wilhelmshaven and vice versa.

The contract was awarded to NordWestBahn, which began operating LINT diesel multiple units from the LNVG vehicle pool on 5 November 2000.

[16] The route is served hourly by Lint 41 diesel multiple units, which run in coupled sets depending on the volume of traffic.

After completion of the electrification, the RE 1 line, which runs every two hours between Hanover and Norddeich Mole, was originally supposed to be split in Oldenburg from December 2022 with part of the train continuing to Wilhelmshaven.

Between Rastede and Oldenburg Central Station fares are set by the Verkehrsverbund Bremen/Niedersachsen (Transport Association of Bremen/Lower Saxony).

The DB customer center in the Wilhelmshaven station area was taken over by NordWestBahn in 2016 and closed when the timetable changed in December 2021.