It was planned as early as 1882 to build a railway line between Bitterfeld via Zörbig to Stumsdorf. In 1884 the Prussian state parliament approved the construction of this route. But it was only when a narrow-gauge railway between Köthen and Zörbig via Radegast was planned in 1894 that the project was pursued further, and the city of Zörbig finally agreed to contribute financially in 1896. The route was opened to traffic on October 1, 1897. In 1910, the narrow-gauge Dessau-Radegast-Köthener Railway (DRKE) line to Radegast, which connected in Zörbig, was expanded to three tracks in order to better connect the Radegast sugar factory. The route was well-used due to rush hour traffic to Bitterfeld and traffic to the lignite and chemical districts. But agricultural products were also transported on it. It was popularly known as the “Juice Railway” because of the sugar beet syrup that was transported on it.
Branch of the siding to the Verbio bioethanol plant in Zörbig
In 1944, eight pairs of trains ran along the entire route on weekdays, as well as trains on certain sections of the route. In 1990 there were twelve pairs of trains on the entire route on weekdays. With the decline of Bitterfeld's industry after 1990, traffic also fell rapidly. Freight traffic was stopped on December 31, 1995. The last passenger train ran on September 28, 2002. The route was put out to tender for takeover, but the takeover conditions were not acceptable to those interested. On August 1, 2004, the line between Antonie pit and Stumsdorf was closed. However, the situation changed with the commissioning of a bioethanol plant in Zörbig. The city of Zörbig founded the Zörbiger Infrastructure Company mbH (ZIG). On January 1, 2005, it took over the route between the Antonie pit and Stumsdorf from DB Netz on a 20-year lease. On August 11th, the new company's first freight train ran between Zörbig and Bitterfeld