Transport Links
A glance at the national road map says it all: Bochum is located at the hub of the most close-knit and efficient road transport network in North Rhine-Westphalia. No matter what direction you come from: you can reach the centre of Bochum quickly and without hassle.The city is served directly by two major motorways, the A 43/A 1 (Hamburg-Cologne) passes through Bochum in a north-south direction, the A 40/A 44 (Holland-Kassel) from west to east.
A number of other motorways can be accessed very quickly: the A 2/A 3 (Holland-Oberhausen-Hanover, the A 42 (Oberhausen-Dortmund), the A 45 (Dortmund-Frankfurt), the A 46 (Wuppertal-Düsseldorf), and the A 52 (Essen-Düsseldorf). An excellent network of roads (e.g., B 51, B 235, B 226) link Bochum to other towns and cities throughout the Ruhr area.
Bochum is also well-connected to the German rail network (Deutsche Bahn AG). It is on the so-called "Bergisch-Märkisch" route, one of the most frequently used rail arteries in the country, making for easy access to the long-distance railway network. Bochum main station is served by 60 EuroCity (EC) and InterCity (IC) trains every day, and since 1996, ICE trains can also be boarded in Bochum.
The whole of Germany's inland waterways network can be accessed some 5 kilometres from Bochum via the Rhine-Herne canal.
The public transport network (ÖPNV) ensures maximum mobility throughout the Ruhr area. It operates a huge fleet of buses, trams and local trains scheduled to run frequently and covering the whole area on a vast number of routes.
International and national air transport can also be easily accessed: Düsseldorf airport can be reached by car in about 45 minutes or by ICE in 33 minutes, by the local rail service (RE 1) in 35, or by the urban rail service (S-Bahn) in 56 minutes. A sixty-minute drive will take you to the airports of Münster / Osnabrück or Cologne / Bonn. Rather nearer is the regional airport in Dortmund, where scheduled flights are available to and from, e.g., Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin, London, Munich, Nuremberg, Paris and Stuttgart.
Information on regional transport:
- Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (VRR) (Rhine-Ruhr Traffic Association)
- Regionalverkehr - bus-und-bahn.de -
- BoGeStra
Traffic Situation in North Rhine-Westphalia
