Simon Freiherr von Eichthal, a banker to the King of Bavaria, also called for a railway from Munich to Salzburg in 1835.

Friedrich August von Pauli, head of the Royal Railway Construction Commission (German: königlichen Eisenbahnbaukommension), travelled to Vienna in order to lead further negotiations.

On 10 September 1848, Joseph Anton von Maffei requested that the design, construction and operation be carried out by a private company.

In May 1854, the government announced that Austria would fail to comply with the opening schedule set out in the treaty because of the difficult terrain on the Salzburg–Bruck line.

In 1852, with the acquisition of the construction work by the Royal Railways Commission (Königlichen Eisenbahnbaukommission), Friedrich August Pauli was appointed executive of the board.

Eduard Rüber was appointed as an architect of the railway line and Johann Georg Beuschel as the chief engineer.

On 12 August 1860, the entire line was opened in the presence of King Maximilian II and Emperor Franz Joseph.

In order for goods and people to continue to be transported by rail, it was decided to duplicate the main lines of the Bavarian railway network.

In 1892, construction started on centralised interlockings at the stations of Prien am Chiemsee, Bad Endorf, Übersee, Bergen and Lauter.

This was supplied through a substation in Rosenheim (completed on 5 March 1928), which was connected by a 110 kV transmission line to the power station.

During World War II the rail traffic was again severely restricted, as the railway was mainly used by military trains.

100 people died in Traunstein and the station area was almost completely destroyed in air raids between 18 and 25 April.

The station buildings in Rosenheim, Traunstein and Freilassing, which were destroyed by air raids in World War II, were replaced in Traunstein and Freilassing by wooden sheds; a small part of the building was preserved in Rosenheim and continued to be used along with newly constructed wooden sheds.

On 11 December 1978, a centralised block was established between Teisendorf and Freilassing, which was controlled by an automated route setting interlocking of the SpDrS60 design.

An automatic block system was taken into operation between Landl (Oberbay) and the start of the Rosenheim curve on 21 January 1982.

Electronic interlockings that are controlled from Munich have operated at Bad Endorf and Prien am Chiemsee stations since 2 March 2005.

Between Freilassing and Salzburg there has been a massive upgrade in recent years and the Salzach bridge has been rebuilt with three tracks.

In February 2013, Deutsche Bahn and the Federal Ministry of Transport signed a financial agreement for the upgrading of the line from the Austrian/German border to Freilassing to three tracks.

Shortly after leaving Traunstein station, Ettendorf church (St. Vitus and Anna) lies next to the line.

In Siezenheim there is a freight yard with sidings to a large chipboard factory in an industrial area and to the Schwarzenberg barracks.

Then the line runs between the districts of Taxham, Maxglan and Mülln to the south and Lehen and Liefering to the north across the Salzach to Salzburg Hauptbahnhof.

The Royal Bavarian State Railways (Königlich Bayerischen Staatseisenbahnen) established Landl (Oberbay) junction on 27 January 1913 as a block post (Blockstelle).

[17][18] In 1881, the halt of Rimsting was built so that king Ludwig II could visit the construction site of the New Herrenchiemsee Palace.

After its opening, the station had larger than usual passenger and freight traffic because a road ran from Teisendorf to Bad Reichenhall and Berchtesgaden.

Around 1900, a mechanical signal box was completed in Teisendorf; this was replaced in 1978 by a relay interlocking controlled using a track plan display.

During the Nazi period, Liefering station was put into operation on 1 June 1943 exclusively for invited guests to Obersalzberg.

The halt is located directly on the banks of the Salzach and serves, inter alia, the Salzburg district of Altstadt (old town).

EuroCity (EC) trains run between Frankfurt am Main and Salzburg via Rosenheim every two hours with stops at Prien, Traunstein and Freilassing.

In addition, a pair of InterCity trains, named Königssee runs each day between Hamburg and Berchtesgaden via the line.

The Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) operate long-distance trains on the Vienna–Salzburg–Innsbruck–Vorarlberg route on the line between Salzburg and Kufstein via Landl/Rosenheim every two hours non-stop.