simultaneously with the opening of lübeck–büchen line by the lbe in 1851, the "berlin-hamburg railway company" opened a line from büchen to lauenburg. the lbe had already established a committee in 1850 with funds of 7,000 prussian thalers to carry out technical tests on the building of a crossing over the elbe near lauenburg. after lengthy negotiations between the governments, it was finally decided to build a train ferry.