on 19 September of the same year. The Altenburg–Crimmitschau section was put into operation on 15 March 1844. A branch was also opened to the remote town of Zwickau. The Crimmitschau–Werdau and Werdau–Zwickau sections were inaugurated on 6 September 1845. With the opening of the Werdau–Reichenbach section on 31 May 1846, a connection was also opened to the Vogtland. The building of the viaducts at Werdau had already caused financial difficulties for the company. Two large viaducts were needed to cross the Göltzsch or Elster valleys. Since no experience had been acquired in building such large bridges, the two viaducts were ultimately twice as expensive as originally planned. The double-line construction as well as the complicated route surveyed between Plauen and Hof cost more than had been planned. On 21 September 1846, the Saxon-Bavarian Railway Company had to cease financing the construction work and asked the Kingdom of Saxony for help. On 1 April 1847, the Kingdom of Saxony purchased the company and operated it as the Saxon-Bavarian State Railways (Sächsisch-Bayerische Staatseisenbahn). The private railway company had begun construction work on the Plauen–Hof section to obtain further revenue to finance the expensive bridge structures as quickly as possible. This section was opened on 20 November 1848 and the state railways started operations on the last section from Reichenbach to Plauen on 15 July 1851. Opening dates Leipzig–Altenburg: 19 September 1842 Altenburg–Crimmitschau: 15 March 1844 Crimmitschau–Werdau: 6 September 1845 Werdau–Reichenbach: 31 May 1846 Plauen–Hof: 20 November 1848 Reichenbach–Plauen: 15 July 1851 Later history The Neumark–Greiz line was opened in 1865; it was later extended to Neumark and connected to the Saxon-Bavarian railway. Trains on this line used the Neumark–Brunn section of the Leipzig–Hof line between 1865 and 1886. With increasing traffic, this section became congested, so from 1885 onwards a new track was laid parallel to the two existing ones and opened on the 19 May of the following year. It was nationalised in 1876 and it became part of the Saxon-Bavarian Railway. It was closed in 1999. On 14 January 1867, a 6.8 km-long branch line was opened from Neukieritzsch to Borna. On 8 April 1872 this was extended by 55.7 km to become the direct Leipzig–Chemnitz line. The inconvenient terminal station in Altenburg was converted into a through station between 1876 and 1878. This required a new alignment with a tunnel through a ridge south of the town. On