The Volmetalbahn is also the name of the trains running on this line as Regionalbahn service RB 52, from Lüdenscheid via Hagen to Dortmund.

The route was opened from Hagen to Oberhagen on 16 October 1871 and the line was extended to Dahl for freight traffic on 15 March 1874.

After the nationalisation of the BME, the Volme Valley Railway was extended to Brügge via Meinerzhagen towards Marienheide and Gummersbach in 1891/92.

[7][8][9] From 1965 until September 1994, the Volme Valley Railway was operated with push–pull trains consisting of Hagen-based class 212 diesel locomotives with two to three, mostly Silberling, carriages.

Until 1979 there was also a Deutsche Bundesbahn bus shuttle between Lüdenscheid and Brügge, which connected with the express trains between Cologne and Hagen.

In 2004, the route was retendered and won by Deutsche Bahn, which has operated it with Alstom Coradia LINT 41 (class 648) railcars.

During the first period of tendered operations the single track section between Brügge and Hagen-Delstern was rebuilt in order to accelerate it.

Since 2006, just two signal boxes remain at Gummersbacher station, with one of them serving a local savings bank as a training centre.

The Volme Valley Railway is served hourly (with gaps on Sunday mornings) by Regionalbahn service RB 52 (Volmetal-Bahn).