There was a long disagreement about the route between Wessling and Herrsching. There were variations running via Walchstadt, Schluifeld and Steinebach. Eventually a route was chosen that ran between the Wörthsee villages of Steinebach and Auing with a station in Steinebach. The line from Munich to Herrsching opened on 1 July 1903. At that time three pairs of passenger trains operated on the line daily. Although an additional holiday train ran in the summer, the line was often overloaded at that time of year. In 1903, it was the busiest branch line in the region with 126,275 passengers. Therefore, in 1913, the section from Pasing to Freiham was duplicated. In 1925 the line was electrified, allowing more and faster trains to run on the line.
S-Bahn
Already in 1959, initial planning began on rebuilding the line for S-Bahn operations. But these plans were not realised until the 1970s. Finally, on 28 May 1972, the Munich S-Bahn opened and the line was integrated in the S-Bahn network. From 1972, it was operated as line S 5. In 1975, the passenger operations at Freiham station were abandoned due to low patronage. It remains active as an operations station for the siding to the Kraillinger Innovations-Meile industrial estate in Krailling. In order to allow operations at 10-minute intervals over the whole line, Deutsche Bundesbahn decided to duplicate the line in the second stage of the Munich S-Bahn. Construction began in 1981 and the second track was opened between Freiham and Unterpfaffenhofen-Germering in 1984, after three years of work. The track was duplicated to Weßling in 1985. The last section from Wessling to Herrsching is still only a single track. In 1992, Unterpfaffenhofen-Germering station was renamed Germering-Unterpfaffenhofen. At the timetable of 2009, the line S 5 designation was abolished and the line has since been served by line S 8. Construction began on 12 June 2012 on the construction of a new station in the centre of Freiham. This station is located about a kilometre east of the old Freiham station, which is no longer served by passenger trains. It was opened on 14 September 2013.
Operations
The Munich–Herrsching line today operates as part of S-Bahn line from Munich Airport to Herrsching with class 423electric multiple units. In the winter there is a 20-minute-interval service to Wessling, where one service an hour turns back, leaving two services an hour that continue to Herrsching. In the summer there are services on the entire route at 20-minute intervals. In the peak additional services run from Munich East to Germering-Unterpfaffenhofen and Wessling at 20-minute intervals, producing 10-minute interval services on this section.
