As maintaining operations over the two-track infrastructure would have cost €6 million more than the nearly €30 million spent on the renovation work on the Nittel Tunnel, the track was closed despite repeated protests by the transport ministries of Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saarland as well as the Lothringischen Interregionalen Parlamentarierrat (Lotharingia Interregional Parliamentary Council, IPR).

Since the change to the summer 2008 timetable, after a gap of over 14 years, passenger trains ran again over the border, but only at weekends at two-hour intervals.

Previously, the approximately one-kilometre-long section between the two stations at the border, Perl in the Saarland and Apach in Lorraine, was not served.

In passenger services Uerdingen railbuses were also used on the German side and the French used class X 4300 diesel multiple units of the SNCF.

However, since they were not approved to operate by the Federal Railway Authority (Eisenbahn-Bundesamt), class 143 locomotives were used with older double-decker carriages.

In 2011, freight operations were largely in the hands of multi-system locomotives such as the German class 185 (Bombardier TRAXX) and the French BB 37000.