Hannöversche Südbahn
The line originally ran in an almost straight line between Lehrte and Hildesheim. Since the early 1990s, it leaves the Hanover-Brunswick line at Lehrte in an easterly direction. It makes a curve of almost 180 degrees to the west and meets the old route south of Lehrte. It then goes south across mostly flat terrain through Sehnde, Algermissen and Harsum, where it approached Hildesheim station from the east. The line then goes due west to Nordstemmen. Since 1991, it has crossed the Hanover–Würzburg high-speed line to which it is connected to and from the south by the Hildesheim loop. Since 1893 at the end of the line there has also been a single-track connecting curve to the north, connecting with the Hanoverian Southern Railway at Barnten station.