The 4.6 km long double-track and electrified section from Witten Hauptbahnhof to Wengern Ost is now used for the transport of freight.

The 17  km long and single-track section from Witten-Höhe to Schwelm was intended to be a part of a relief route from the Ruhr to Cologne.

It was envisaged that the line to Schwelm would have been extended to the south via Lennep (near Remscheid) to Cologne, but this was not completed due to the outbreak of the First World War.

Thus Deutsche Reichsbahn opened the first section from the Witten Hauptbahnhof via Witten-Höhe to Wengern Ost on 4 October 1926 with connections to the Ruhr Valley Railway from Hattingen to Hagen.

[3][4] The economic decline during and after the war was the reason for the drawn-out construction of the main part of the line, with most works carried out before 1914.