The railway was originally planned as a section of a projected railway connection from the to Mariazell, and was opened 1893. The line brought an economic upswing to the region because of the availability of goods traffic, and the iron industry particularly profited from the introduction of rail transport. Passenger traffic never achieved great importance, since the larger places were convenient off the distance such as Aflenz or Turnau and also the proposed connection to Mariazell was never realised.
