How to get to the Ruhr Metropolis
Many ways lead to the European Capital of Culture 2010.
No matter if you travel by air, by car or by train, getting here is easy.
Deutsche Bahn AG (German rail) has an excellent service linking all the major cities in Germany and Europe (including Amsterdam, Luxemburg, Zürich, Vienna, Prague and Warsaw) to the Ruhr Metropolis. In addition to local public transport, German rail will be adding car-sharing and call-a-bike facilities to its other customer services, thereby demonstrating its efficiency as the official mobility partner of RUHR.2010.
Further information at: www.bahn.de
Local transport offers a dense network of routes comprising over 10,000 bus stops and railway stations. Shuttle buses and special trains will be provided for many of the major events during the Capital of Culture year.
For more information please turn to: www.vrr.de
By air
The main airport for the Cultural Capital is Düsseldorf International, only a few kilometres away from the Ruhr Metropolis, and easy to reach by rail and car. Düsseldorf International is the third largest airport in Germany and has connections to all other German airports, as well as to major cities in Europe and overseas.
A thirty-mintue train journey on the local Regional Express service (lines RE1, RE3 and RE6) will bring you right into the heart of the Capital of Culture. The RE3, for example, stops near the Zollverein visitor centre.
Dortmund airport is situated within the Ruhr Metropolis and serves a number of other airports within Germany and Europe. The airport express bus will bring you directly to Dortmund Central Station, from where you can easily reach all the other towns and cities in the Cultural Capital.
The Ruhr Metropolis can also be reached in less than an hour from the follwing airports:
Cologne/Bonn, Weeze in the Lower Rhine, and Münster/Osnabrück.
For more information about the airport for the Cultural Capital please turn to: www.duesseldorf-international.de
For more information about Dortmund Airport please turn to: www.dortmund-airport.de
The Ruhr Metropolis is criss-crossed by no less than 10 different motorways. That said, it's not hard to find your way around because even the smaller suburbs often have their own motorway exits.
Visitors must be aware that wide parts of the Cultural Capital have been declared "Umweltzone" - "environmental" zones in which special measures were taken to reduce air pollution: to enter these zones, every vehicle must carry a sticker, a so-called Umweltplakette, that is either green, yellow or red, according to the particulate emission of hazardous substances of the vehicle.
Also foreigners need to obtain one of these stickers in advance!
Please turn to www.tuev-nord.de to learn more about the environmental zone and how to get a sticker.