It is 99.6 km (61.9 mi) long and runs from Bamberg via Erlangen, Fürth and Nuremberg to Hartmannshof.

The line opened on September 26, 1987, with initial service from Nuremberg main station to Lauf (links der Pegnitz).

In the course of the VDE8 Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway, the existing line between Bamberg and Nuremberg is extended to quadruple tracks.

The city of Fürth however sued[4][5] against those plans and won in court[6][7] bringing construction to a halt and leaving many unconnected and half built sections of track.

To enable a roughly twenty minute headway along the busy section of track (commuters commute in both directions between Nuremberg and Erlangen all day) and to make use of the already built infrastructure, plans existed to build seven switches to enable more frequent and reliable service.