The Nuremberg–Augsburg railway is a 137 km long main line in the German state of Bavaria. Most of it follows two parts the historic Ludwig South-North Railway, one of the oldest lines in Germany. Today, even after the opening of the high-speed line from Nuremberg to Munich via Ingolstadt, is still used for long-distance services. It is also used as a detour during closures of the high speed line for maintenance. Between Nuremberg and Roth S-Bahn services run on the parallel Nuremberg–Roth line. History The first plans for a railway line from Augsburg to Nuremberg were made shortly after the opening of the first railway line in Germany, the Nuremberg–Fürth line in 1835. Merchants from the Augsburg area formed a joint-stock company for the construction and operation of a line from Augsburg to Nuremberg via Donauwörth and Treuchtlingen. The company was dissolved in 1841 because it was understood that King Ludwig I intended to build a state railway and because the company had decided that the difficult geography between Donauwörth and Treuchtlingen (the Franconian Alb) made it impossible to build and operate a railway economically. The Bavarian state government handled the problem of crossing the Franconian Alb by routing the Ludwig South-North Railway through the Nordlinger Ries depression. Therefore, only the Augsburg–Donauwörth and Pleinfeld–Nuremberg sections of the Nuremberg–Augsburg were part of the South-North Railway, which was authorised by the Bavarian parliament on 25 August 1843. The Treuchtlingen–Pleinfeld section was built in connection with the construction of the Ingolstadt–Treuchtlingen line and opened on 2 October 1869. The gap between Donauwörth and Treuchtlingen was not completed until 1 October 1906, when more advanced steam engines made the operation of the hilly line more economic. On 1 October 1898, the flying junction between Nuremberg suburbs of Eibach and Reichelsdorf was opened, allowing a grade-separated entrance for freight trains to the Nuremberg marshalling yard. Work on the electrification of the line began in 1933 and was completed on 10 May 1935. The 36.5 km section between Augsburg-Oberhausen and Donauwörth was cleared in two sections in 1978 and 1981 for speeds of up to 200 km/h. This was one of the first lines in Germany, where this speed was authorised. On 29 June 1994, a ground breaking ceremony was held for the beginning of the rebuilding of the section from Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof to Roth for S-Bahn operations, which was completed on 9 June 2001. The