The Trebnitz–Leipzig railway is a double track electrified main line in the German states of Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony built and originally operated by the Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company. It formally starts at Trebnitz on the former border between the Duchy of Anhalt and Prussia and runs via Dessau and Delitzsch to Leipzig. The section from Bitterfeld to Leipzig is part of Line 1 of the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T). Until 1871, the Zerbst–Roßlau section was called the Anhaltische Leopoldsbahn (Anhalt Leopold's railway). History Planning and Construction The Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company () was for more than four decades in the 19th century one of the major railway companies in Germany. It built during this period a network of major rail links between Berlin and the northern part of the Kingdom of Saxony and the Prussian Province of Saxony and the Duchy of Anhalt, including the Anhalt trunk line. Its trunk line ran from Berlin via Wittenberg and Dessau to Köthen, where it connected with the Magdeburg-Leipzig line to Halle and Leipzig. In order to shorten the route to Halle and Leipzig, the company built direct lines from Dessau via Bitterfeld to Leipzig and Halle in the late 1850s. The section from Dessau to Bitterfeld was opened on 17 August 1857. This was followed by the opening of the sections from Bitterfeld to both Halle and Leipzig on 1 February 1859. A shorter line was opened between Berlin to Leipzig on a direct route between Wittenberg and Bitterfeld on 3 August 1859. The parliament of the Duchy of Anhalt decided to build a 13 km long railway from Roßlau to Zerbst to connect Zerbst to the fast-growing rail network. This was opened on 1 November 1863. The line was operated by the Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company. It acquired the railway on 1 October 1871 for one million marks and extended it from 1 July 1874 to the Anhalt–Prussian border at Trebnitz. At the same time the Berlin-Potsdam-Magdeburg Railway Company (Potsdam-Magdeburger Eisenbahngesellschaft) opened it line from the border to Biederitz, which was already connected by the Berlin–Potsdam–Magdeburg Railway to Magdeburg. A passenger train and a locomotive collided at a Rackwitz on 21 June 1871. 19 people died and 56 others were injured. Electrification The Magdeburg–Dessau–Leipzig–Halle axis was one of the first mainline to be electrified with low-frequency, single phase power. The Prussian state railways preferred to electrify the Euskirchen–Trier and the Altona-Kiel lines, but the