It gives direct access from the Mannheim–Frankfurt railway (known as the Riedbahn) from the north to the western end of Mannheim central station, allowing trains to the east and the south (and vice versa) to continue without reversal.

The new line passes under the passenger and freight tracks of the Mannheim–Saarbrücken railway on the northwestern approach to Mannheim Hauptbahnhof and then runs over a 2,200 m long viaduct that crosses several intersecting roads in the port area.

In an international treaty contracted in 1843 by the former states of Baden, Hesse and the Free City of Frankfurt, it was agreed that the preferred route of the planned Main-Neckar Railway (Main-Neckar-Bahn) would end in neither Mannheim nor Heidelberg.

This caused a problem of connecting to the Riedbahn, which was opened to Mannheim from the north by the Hessian Ludwig Railway in October 1879.

Continuing to Karlsruhe and Stuttgart, however, required locomotives to be unhitched and moved to the back of trains so that they could reverse direction.

Shortly before the First World War and in the mid-1920s it has been proposed that the Riedbahn be rerouted through the port area to reach the Hauptbahnhof.

The time advantage from removing the reversal of train would have been lost as a result of the extra 10 km of this route.

[7] Both the 1943 B3 program developed just before World War II and the more limited remodeling plans of 1950/51 contained an approach of the Riedbahn from the west to Mannheim Hauptbahnhof.

The latter plans envisaged a 9.5 km long new line from Mannheim-Waldhof with a grade-separated junction in the station area.

[9] Direct access from the Riedbahn to the Mannheim node was proposed in a study for the Executive Board of Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) in 1964.

[13][14] Transport Minister Kurt Gscheidle approved the construction of the 9.1 km long overall project on 7 September 1978.

It demanded, among other things, the relocation of the existing and the new railway facilities, the adjacent federal highway and the tram tunnel; the associated costs were calculated by Deutsche Bundesbahn as around DM one billion.

[15] A common planning approach by the city, state, federal government and Deutsche Bundesbahn eventually emerged in response to the demands of the citizens' initiative.

Among other things, street signage would be changed, pedestrian links would be separated from the railway by noise barriers and the construction of freight facilities would be delayed.

[16] With the adoption of the zoning decision for the Mannheim-Waldhof area, the planning approval process was completed in August 1981.

[1] At the end of May 1979, the Mannheim City Council approved the project, after DB had agreed to extensive soundproofing.

[11] As part of the project, a new platform underpass equipped with escalators was built in Mannheim Hauptbahnhof and a new relay interlocking was put into operation in 1982.

[18] In the spring of 1985, leaflets and films were issued on future operations on the line to help drivers acquire route knowledge.

[11] Apart from regional services of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar, the line is now served by three Intercity-Express routes connecting southern Germany with Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Dortmund.