Between Bad Cannstatt and Goldshöfe, the line is part of the long-distance inter-regional connection between Stuttgart and Nuremberg.

A short distance from the station, the four tracks of the line separate from the Fils Valley Railway at a flying junction.

A tunnel was originally planned for this watershed, but a slightly longer route with a curve and a cutting was built.

The line to Crailsheim branches off to the north; originally Goldshöfe station was built to allow changes of train and it was not intended to serve the local population.

Up to the end of the line in Nördlingen, a somewhat more winding route and a tunnel[4] through the foothills of the Swabian Jura near Lauchheim were necessary.

The main objectives put forward for the project, originally called the Nordostbahn (“Northeast Railway") were: The architect responsible for planning the line, Georg Morlok examined four major variants for the route with different locations for the transition from the Neckar and Fils valley to the Rems valley.

In the subsequent discussions, the requests of the cities of Waiblingen and Schorndorf for a rail connection, the smaller climbs, which would allow easier operations and the shorter route between Stuttgart and Aalen contributed to the decision to select the first variant.

[7] In 1863, the second section to Nördlingen was opened, connecting the Rems line to the Bavarian Ludwig South-North Railway.

The 3.75 km section between the border and the Bavarian town of Nördlingen was operated by the Württemberg State Railways on lease.

It was duplicated from Cannstatt to Fellbach in 1864, Waiblingen in 1876, Schorndorf in 1899, Lorch in 1902, Deinbach in 1905, Gmünd in 1910, Unterböbingen in 1920,[7] then Essingen, and Aalen in 1926.

Its purpose was, together with today's Schuster Railway (Schusterbahn, then called the Kornwestheim–Untertürkheim line), to relieve Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof of freight traffic.

[10] At the end of World War II, the German military blew up the viaduct over the Haldenbach west of Endersbach station and the bridge over the Kocher west of Aalen, so that the intervening places were only accessible via the Hohenstaufen Railway from Schwäbisch Gmünd to Göppingen on the Fils Railway.

In 1983 and 1984 a portion of the Rheingold ran from Mannheim via Heidelberg, Heilbronn, Stuttgart and over the Rems line, continuing to Nördlingen and Donauwörth to Munich.

Before its introduction, Deutsche Bundesbahn had suggested that the increase in services would require additional tracks on the section between Waiblingen and Schorndorf, which was almost at capacity with the combined operation of S-Bahn and other trains on it.

However, a report by RWTH Aachen University in 1993 came to the conclusion that the planned operations could be realised by shortening signal blocks on the line and modifying Waiblingen station.

[17] The platforms at the Westhausen, Lauchheim, Aufhausen, Bopfingen and Pflaumloch stations were also rebuilt to provide accessibility.

[19][20] On 9 June 2019, Go-Ahead Verkehrsgesellschaft Deutschland took over regional services on the Waiblingen–Aalen section from DB Regio Baden-Württemberg.

However, due to different opinions among the parties involved regarding the appropriate platform height, there was a delay of several years, so that construction can probably only begin in the mid-2020s.

This is supplemented by the RE 1 Interregio-Express service, which runs every two hours between Karlsruhe and Aalen, with intermediate stops in Schorndorf and Schwäbisch Gmünd.

Between Aalen and Donauwörth, regional trains on line RB 89 run every hour from Monday to Friday.

[24] From the timetable change on 12 December 2010, Regional-Express trains at weekends largely consisted of double-deck carriages built from 1994 to 1996.

One InterCity service, IC 61 runs at two-hour intervals on the Karlsruhe–Nuremberg route, stopping in Stuttgart, Schwäbisch Gmünd and Aaalen.