 The track was opened on 18 November 1874 by the Rhenish Railway Company () to connect its Ruhr line with the Right Rhine line.It runs parallel, but a few kilometres to the east of the Cologne–Duisburg trunk line opened by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company ("Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft") thirty years earlier, from which it hoped to draw traffic.Since the line bypasses the centre of the towns, soon after the nationalisation of both companies in 1879/1880 passenger operations were closed on parts of it.