With the emergence of tourism in the second half of the 19th century, the region experienced a growing number of city dwellers looking for destinations close to Vienna.

The area of the Vienna Hausberge ("Viennese Local Mountains"), the Schneeberg and Rax region, soon emerged as a favourite summer resort of Vienna's wealthy residents and lovers of the countryside.

Originally operated by the Arnoldi company, whose majority shareholder was the Berlin bank house Landau, the operation was taken over in 1899 by the AG der Eisenbahn Wien–Aspang (EWA) (Vienna-Aspang Rail Company), due to economic problems.

After 1940 the railway was fully nationalized, a situation lasting until 1990, when the ÖBB announced it was unable to maintain the existing level of service.

Therefore, an independent operating company – the Niederösterreichische Schneebergbahn GmbH (Lower Austrian Schneeberg Railway Company Ltd.) – was founded in 1996, with a 50% shareholding owned by the federal state of Lower Austria, and the other 50% held by the ÖBB.