In World War II, cross-border passenger traffic was stopped on the line.

In 1992, the first passenger trains began running on the line at 2-hour intervals as a City Express from Aachen to Heerlen.

As the first real stage of the transnational regional rail system Euregiobahn in June 2001, the connection from Aachen to Heerlen via Herzogenrath was introduced.

April 2014 marked the start of the electrification of the single-track railway from Landgraaf to Herzogenrath, which was completed at the end of 2018.

On 27 January 2019 Arriva started a direct service between Aachen, Heerlen and Maastricht.