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I arrived in Dortmund on an InterCityExpress (ICE) train from Hannover, which took one hour and thirty-eight minutes. I left two days later, also on an ICE train, this time bound for Frankfurt am Main.
Both of these trains were more or less on time, which unfortunately is no longer the norm for German trains.
Overseas visitors to Germany are often astounded by the fast and frequent train service in this country and can’t understand why the Germans always complain about it. The reason is that it used to be much more dependable than it is now.
In the 1990s for ideological reasons the management of the German railway system was entrusted to an unscrupulous caste of millionaire business executives who came from other corporations such as airlines or car companies and in most cases knew nothing about running a railroad. The result has been a steady deterioration of service and infrastructure.
Nonetheless, the train is still the best and most responsible way to travel around Germany. Just allow enough time in case your train is late and you miss your connecting train and have to wait around an hour for the next one. (That’s annoying, but still better than polluting the atmosphere while sitting around in a traffic jam on the motorway. And much better than causing extreme amounts of pollution by taking a short-haul airplane flight.)
Second photo: An Inter-City train pulling into Dortmund Main Station.
Third photo: A Eurobahn train leaving Dortmund Main Station. Eurobahn is a recently founded railway company which belongs mainly to the French Keolis Group. It has been awarded concessions to operate local and regional trains on several lines from Dortmund to a number of nearby cities such as Hamm, Bielefeld, Münster, Gelsenkirchen and Düsseldorf.
Fourth photo: A local DB train.
Fifth photo: A DB Regio train with several bicycle symbols.
The Dortmund Main Station is at GPS 51°31'2.67" North; 7°27'33.38" East.
Metropolradruhr bicycle station 7306 (Hauptbahnhof gegenüber Hauptausgang)
Next: Metropolradruhr
Written Dec 25, 2011
Website: http://www.bahnhof.de/site/bahnhoefe/en/west/dortmund__hbf/dortmund__hbf.html
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From the start, part of the business plan of the NextBike organization was that they offered to work with local and regional authorities to establish tailor-made bicycle sharing systems designed especially to fit the local situation.
The best example of this that I have seen and used is the Metropolradruhr system which began operation in June 2010 as “the biggest bike sharing system in Germany”. It is run by NextBike on behalf of ten cities in the Ruhr Valley: Bochum, Bottrop, Dortmund, Duisburg, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Hamm, Herne, Mülheim an der Ruhr and Oberhausen.
If you already have an account with NextBike you don’t have to register again, just go to any of the bike stations in any of the ten cities and check out a bike by calling the normal NextBike number in Berlin. The cost (as of 2011) is one Euro per hour or eight Euros per day.
So it works just like the NextBike system in any other city, except that here you can return your bike to any bicycle station in any of the ten cities. So theoretically you could check out a bike in Hamm, ride it eighty kilometers to Duisburg and return it to any of the stations there.
Another specialty is that people who commute to work by train get half an hour free cycling per day so they can ride from the railway station to their place of work at no extra charge.
The name Metropolradruhr is a combination of three words meaning Metropolitan Bicycle Ruhr.
Second photo: Metropolradruhr bike station 3715, near the opera house.
Next: Cycling in Dortmund
Updated Dec 25, 2011
Phone: 030 69205046
Website: http://www.metropolradruhr.de/index.php?id=1056&L=en&type=0
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Like all German cities, Dortmund has an active chapter of the General German Bicycle Club (ADFC).
This is not a racing club, but a club devoted to promoting the bicycle as the ideal means of urban transportation.
And unusual feature of the Dortmund ADFC chapter is that their website has a map showing past and present problem points for cyclists, coded in three colors. Yellow means that a problem has been reported. Green means the problem has been solved. Red means a danger point that has been known for a long time but has not yet been corrected. When you click on the marker you can see a description of the problem and often a photo. There is also a form on the website where cyclists can report problems they have noticed or improvements that have been made to the bicycle infrastructure.
I am of course a member of the ADFC, but in Frankfurt am Main, not Dortmund.
Back to my Dortmund intro page
Updated Dec 25, 2011
Website: http://www.adfc-nrw.de/kreisverbaende/kv-dortmund/kreisverband-dortmund.html
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Dortmund is a major train hub with lots of ICE, IC and regional train connection as well as international trains such as the Eurocity and City Night Line to Switzerland. At the station you can find all the usual facilities.
Written Dec 9, 2007
Website: www.bahn.de
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Dortmund has its own airport which is served by several low cost airlines. It's a modern airport with the usual facilities but the airport is not that big.
To reach the airport by public transport, you can either take a bus from Dortmund or take a local train to the Holzwickede station and catch a bus there. The bus from Holzwickede costs 1 Euro. In Holzwickede there is a free Park & Ride carpark.
Written Dec 8, 2007
Website: www.flughafen-dortmund.de
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Even that the airport doe’s not have official train stop, you better know that you can get to or from the airport by train. The stop called: Holzwickede (Flughafen Dortmund) it is only 1 km away from the airport and you can either walk or take the local bus for 1 euro.
Written Jun 4, 2005
Website: www.bahn.de & www.vrr.de
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Dortmund international airport is rather close to the city. It has operations from Lufthansa of course but also few very good cheaper airlines as Air Berlin, Easyjet and the new local operator, Dauair.
Written Jun 4, 2005
Website: www.flughafen-dortmund.de
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DORTMUND HAS ALSO AS OTHER BIG CITIES IN WESTFALIA AN - AIRPORT -
IT IS A SMALL ONE BUT YOU CAN ALSO FLY IN OTHER EURPEEEN AND SOME AFRICAN CONTRIES AS EGYPT COUNTRIES .
WHAT IS VERY GOOD YOU DONT WAIT SO LONG AS IN THE BIGGER AIRPORT AND YOU LL FIND ATTRACTIVE OFFERS FOR EXAMPLE TO PARIS from 42 EUROS WITH AIR BERLIN
Written Mar 19, 2005
Phone: 02 31/92 13-01
Website: http://www.flughafen-dortmund.de
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Oh. there are many ways to visit Dortmund:
we have got a train station in the citycenter
Dortmund has also got an airport
you can go by car or ship
the best way to get around in Dortmund is by train or underground - it is not to expensive and you can go where you want as quickly as you want
Written Aug 25, 2002
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DORTMUND HAS A NEW AND SMALL AIRPORT SINCE A FEW YEARS . SO IT S POSSIBLE TO GO TO DORTMUND BY AIRPLAINE .
Updated Apr 4, 2011
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DORTMUND HAS A NEW AND SMALL AIRPORT SINCE A FEW YEARS . SO IT S POSSIBLE TO GO TO DORTMUND BY AIRPLAINE .
78 members live in Dortmund
Q: My girlfriend and I are going to the Dortmund/Schalke match at Signal Iduna Park on Nov 26. We have a flight leaving Brussels at...
A: Don't see a problem here. The match will indeed end at around 5:15, but it is not that the latest train leaves at 5:37. Go to www.bahn.de or...
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Dortmund was first mentioned around 880 as „Throtmani“. In 1220 it became a free city. Dortmund used to be the city of coal, steel and beer. Today it has about 590’000 inhabitants.
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FAMOUS CITY of German BEER If you search anything about GERMAN CITIES and you can understand German try the following side http://www.wekacityline.de
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Dortmund is one of several large cities in the Ruhr Valley, a former mining and heavy industry region that is now getting itself reoriented and is certainly cleaner than it used to be, though not as...
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Dortmund - Operation Chastise Dambusters Tour 2011
We went to Dortmund for a lovely long weekend in June 2011. The plan was to use Dortmund as a base for a four day tour of the famous Ruhr reservoir dams attacked by RAF 617 squadron in May 1943. The...
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So far I didn't really had the time to see around this city, I was only passing by few times.
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