To learn all about the Rhein-Ruhr Express system, check out the Nebula Plus video now: nebula.tv/videos/rmtransit-faster-than-the-sbahn-rheinruhr-express And check out The Tim Traveller's videos on the hanging monorails of the Rhine-Ruhr region: - Wuppertal: th-cam.com/video/9IFh6wFTJiQ/w-d-xo.html - Düsseldorf: th-cam.com/video/NeYTtlXywUI/w-d-xo.html - Dortmund: th-cam.com/video/9Kwpj1UOrhs/w-d-xo.html
I think its extremely important to show people in America and Canada these globally unknown cities and their transportation. Because if we talk about Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam or London, Americans and Canadians will counter that with New York and Toronto. But with cities like Bochum and such, we are talking about medium sized cities, the size of Windsor, fake London, and countless of places in the US of the same size. Your average medium sized north American city, more than qualifies for a tram or subway network.
Yes. RMTransit previously did a video on the Métro de Rennes in France which is a city about the size of Cincinnati. It would be great if did one on the Lausanne Métro in Switzerland. Edit: He has done a video on Lausanne!
@@LS-Moto ...and yet it isnt really known for public transit, instead being one of the more car dependent places in germany. It not being Houston is something we already know. Any city in germany has enough public transit to get around, its just that transit the region isnt really that great *compared to the rest of germany*. There's a reason why places like Essen dont have a lot of transit rider share.
Except for one omission, this is an absolutely superb video. The omission is Gelsenkirchen, population 265,000, much bigger than Molheim! It should have featured in both Stadtbahn and S-Bahn discussions.
The whole north, which is underdeveloped since 70 years (they planned to build a north ring for train connections) was missed. Recklinghausen is the gate for the more rural areas and it is extremly shitty connected and from there you can only use a very bad bus network to come to the villages and towns in the north. With one bus every hour if you are lucky.
@tja9212 U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines were planned for cities such as Bottrop, Recklinghausen. Sadly, basically nothing materialized and they even closed tram lines that were supposed to become part of the U-Bahn network.
What is even more impressive are the RE trains that connect city centers and major points along all the NRW. You can arrange a trip to any major city in the region and be home the same day.
As someone who lived his entire life in NRW and now in Bochum, I take this for given and don't appreciate enough how insanely good and rare a network like this is.
@@TheYCrafter I am now in Bochum too. You guys have an almost utopia level conveniency of public transit. Yes, trains are sometimes late but most importantly they are always there. The service is frequent and covers every corner of a region. And d-ticket for 50 euros is insanely good value. Also I am extremely grateful to Germany and German people that you let Ukrainians have a chance to set up their lives here. I have been here for a month, waiting for a travel authorization for my sister to go to USA. Living in motels and now in my friend's house. Now having second thoughts whether it is a good idea to go to the USA. I have always dreamt about becoming a train driver, but the pay in Ukraine is like 250 euros a month. After 3-4 years of studying the language and going through apprenticeship becoming one in Germany is not an unrealistic idea.
@@schuller623 It is really easy to become a tram driver in germany since we have a shortage, especially in the ruhr valley. Just speak to some companys, literally all of them are looking to hire you. Becoming a train driver is even easier here, just talk to a recruiter at the deutsche bahn. They pay very well and the apprenticeship is paid too. A friend of mine had a really fucked up life and thought he would never get a job. The DB accepted him easily and now he makes good money driving trains. When my family moved here from Kazakhstan in the 90s, my dad had a really easy time becoming a train driver, even though his german is bad. Just try and i guarantee that you will succeed.
BTW i live in Bottrop and speak russian too, but only understand some ukrainian (even though my mum is ukrainian lmao). If you need help writing an application, i could help you. But i think nowadays you dont need one. You can just hit them up i think.
One important thing to mention about the Rhine-Ruhr area is coal mining: The ground in some areas dropped more than 20 meters, in an uneven way, making any infrastructure build underground VERY problematic. For example, the river Emscher was converted into an overground sewer, because an underground system could easily break and in this case the sewage would pollute the groundwater, the main source of drinking water here. It takes about 15-20 years before the ground has settled after coal mining ends, so only since very recently the new sewage tunnel with 3 pumping stations finished, and renaturalisation of the Emscher started. Building tunnels comes with extra challenges here, because not all mining operations (especially the ones close to the surface) were mapped, which makes it very difficult to plan underground routes for public transit. Some of the old shafts are actually filled with a special concrete, just to prevent the surface from breaking and leaving nothing than a big hole.
I do have Nebula, but I don't like that the RRX is in an exclusive video there. That isn't extra information, it's absolutely essential to understand the region. This is like game developers cutting out gameplay from the core game to sell it as a DLC rather than creating additional gameplay.
@@crowmob-yo6ry Streaming video ain't cheap, you can't really blame TH-cam as they have to stay afloat. No else comparable free service survived like YT did.
@@RMTransit I think it would have been better to put the Part about the trams in a nebula exclusive, because of the mentioned obscure details and discarded Plans of future devolopment. Whilst the RRX is a giant success, and gets turned more and more into an express s-bahn. With deticated tracks planned between Düsseldorf Benrath and Duisburg. I still cant believe, that they bought new desiro hc trains from Siemens for more capacity and they are already too small for the amount of passengers wanting to use the great RRX service
Essen is awful for Bikes, Cars and Public Transit. It dosent help that it is ugly af and way too expensive compared to its neighbouring cities. My driving instructor told me that when i made my driving license in Bottrop. While you can use all three here without any issues, Essen is a complete hellhole. I learned that the hard way when i used to work as a Logistics foreman in Essen.
The clear distinction made between Stadtbahn and Tram is quite interesting. Never noticed anyone living here think about them seperately, I think the words are used interchangably, alongside U-Bahn. Great video, thank you!
I stayed just outside Düsseldorf for a couple of months last year and I definitely found the trams and the U-bahn functionally interchangeable - it was just a matter of which one served the place you were going
@@mrvwbug4423 If I got the (German) wikipedia definition correctly it's kinda a hybrid of tram and subway/metro. It's _usually_ more disconnected from traffic unlike trams, and _usually_ has higher capacity and speeds, and _more likely_ to have several lines bundled in one tunnel than a subway. Details that can of course make a huge difference, but if you're a regular passenger and not a traffic nerd might not notice. (Or at least I never did lol) A Stadtbahn (or tram) _can_ also intersect with the railway network, in which case it's called a tram-train.
@@RMTransit Well, it depends on the section. For instance, U75 in Düsseldorf-Eller operates alongside the 701 tram, running on the road and serving stations in short intervals. You can hear people there referring to both modes of transport as trams. At the same time, people in the city centre, would never call the U75 a tram, but only U-Bahn or Stadtbahn since it goes underground there. People in the north of Düsseldorf where the U79 to Duisburg runs on separate gound-level infrastructure are likely to call it Stadtbahn.
As an Essen resident I just want to add that the city got rid of the high-floor trams last year after the arrival of the new HF4s. However some are still being used on the 107 as that line has a weird service pattern. It usually terminates at Essen Hbf but it's "extended" all the way to Bredeney in the south during weekdays and even not at all times. It's during this extended service that the old trams come back to life. (The project to convert all double track gauge stations to also doble platform height was completed last year as well)
This is the rail system the North of England needs, especially Liverpool - Manchester - Leeds or Sheffield. The whole region is similarly spread out with many smaller towns and cities too and a large population but is let down by unreliable underinvested in services and is full of bottlenecks especially around Manchester. Many suburban areas and radial routes are poorly served too. Germany has its problems too but at least it kept its rail infrastructure.
You are totally right. A similarly 'tiered' system (trams/Stadtbahn, then S-Bahn/suburban rail, then high speed rail) is exactly what the North needs, and is the only way to effectively encourage modal shift. Here in West Yorkshire we're gearing up to build a tram between Bradford and Leeds, but I fear that the bigger picture is being missed and that people think that trams will fix everything. Unfortunately with HS2 and the Northern Hub schemes scrapped we won't see the full potential of a system like this.
@@RMTransit It's similarly spread out with more than one major centre but on a smaller scale in my county, Hertfordshire. Easy and quick to travel into London but almost hopeless if you want to travel from one county town to another by public transport as there are no east-west railways resulting in loads of congestion especially on the M25. Major gaps in services between Outer London and county towns too, which means most people just drive. The best we have is one express bus an hour that gets stuck in traffic with everything else!
Problem is everything up north is spread out between multiple TOCs that run very different services. Northern is kinda the de facto commuter operator in the region and is state owned, but isn't great for crossing between cities in the north. Then you have TPE who runs more regional and inter-city services across the north and into Scotland, but don't necessarily have good transfers to Northern, they're also state owned. XC runs various inter-city services through the region, but has horrific overcrowding on their trains. AWC and LNWR connect Birmingham, Manchester, Crewe, Liverpool and Blackpool and AWC runs up to Scotland as well, but don't connect to the northeast. LNER, Hull Trains, Lumo and Grand Central all connect the cities of the northeast (Leeds, York, Hull, Newcastle) to London and then EMR connects Sheffield, Derby and Bradford to London, but again with disjointed routes and not a lot of good transfers.
@@mrvwbug4423 well that isn't exactly a difficult problem to fix: end all the TOC non-sense, bring back British Rail, have a separate division for intercity rail and a separate division for regional rail that works closely with local authorities. And this last point is important, local councils need to be more empowered and responsible for attending local and regional mobility needs, just like it happens in London and Manchester with TfL and TfGM. I'm concerned that Labour's plan for a "nationalised" British Rail isn't ambitious enough. Infrastructure is a more challenging problem to solve. Behind all this the bigger problem is the historical lack of public investment in public transport. Having no strategy for public transport and independent bodies to plan and execute rail and transit in general is the problem. Lack of continued development and investment is a problem since it makes every single project unique and more expensive and less likely to be actually delivered and within budget and on time. Treasury is the problem because it forces transit to always have a business case where the benefits of mobility aren't considered.
There is so much more to the region, there are some other new projects like the Citybahn in Essen or a new S-Bahn route in Duisburg. Also not everything in this region evolves positively, unfortunately a section of a tram line in Mühlheim was closed very recently, in a completely irrational way. Also some of the maps were not up to date, here this tram line still exists. Also the line S9 has two branches in the north, one to Haltern am See and the other new branch to Recklinghausen Hbf little to the south, where there also ends an S2 branch. This new S9 branch connected the city of Herten to the rail network, that previously was the largest city in Germany without a rail connection. Also there are new X-Bus rapid transit lines in the nothern part of the region, connecting smaller cities without a rail connection. There are also many ideas and future plans for new lines or extensions, like a tram-train line between Bochum and Essen. There are many of these ideas but unfortunately those ideas do not get much attention. This region has so many interesting aspects, one video is too short for everything, especially considering its history of coal mining and its current rise as a tech hub with multiple large universities. Considering that the VRR contains multiple transport companies, each might get its own attention, especially locally to the main cities: DSW21, Bogestra, Ruhrbahn, DVG, Rheinbahn
@cmdlp4178 while the closures of the Mülheim lines were not necessary, imo it's not too bad, because all of these closed lines performed poor in terms of ridership, so it's not a big loss. The other lines do good in this regard.
The tram line in Mülheim which got closed, did not really have enough ridership. There is one school, but this is also in walking distance to the city station, so it is not that bad. Everything else, which is important, can be reached with the 112. Also the city has so much dept. I think it is like 9k per resident, so it must save somewhere. The line that was shortened years ago, which goes to the airport, that was a rather questionable one, considering today, with the new Zeppelinhall, there way more events at the airport
Yeah I can't really think of a region elsewhere that is better connected. Maybe some parts of Japan, though I know the density of rail networks drops by a ton once you're out of the Tokyo metro area.
@@young_diogenes Nature and surroundings wise worst in the Region? You have a Giant Hill Forest, multiple big Lakes, a giant Castle Garden in the South and the Rhine with the left Side of it being completely natural and Green. Düsseldorf ist known for it's Beautiful Greenery. You definitely must have worked in the wrong City. i think you may think of Neuss? which is the Neighbour city of Düsseldorf, but is not Part of Düsseldorf, rather it's own city. Düsseldorf has Südpark, Nordpark, Hofgarten, Spree'scher Graben, Volksgarten, Rheinpark Golzheim, Botanischer Garten, Grafenberger Wald, Schlosspark Benrath, and even more Stunning Green Spaces. you should definetly check this Places out. The City is also full of grandious old Buildings aswell as Modern Glass High Rises. Especially at the Medienhafen they have both in the same Place.
Perhaps the current DB reliabilty/puntuality issues might have warranted a mention. I was in the Ruhr area earlier in the year on a cultual/city break. Visiting opera, theatre, spas etc in several centres (Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg this time) has always been a breeze in the past via local and regional transport. This time I don't think there was a single S-Bahn trip over three days that didn't involve delays, changed platforms etc. Such a shame because the system is so good.
Its important to consider that the Stadtbahn (U-Bahn in Rhine Ruhr context) was planned in addition to the S-Bahn. It was supposed to cover the routes that were not and cannot be served by the S-Bahn. Some of these lines are the north extension of the U35, the northern tunnel of Essen all the way to Gelsenkirchen Buer, and the formerly planned U-Bahn between Bochum and Gelsenkirchen all the way to GE Buer as well, with Gelsenkirchen having a massive currently underused tunnel partially built. These are some of the lines that really should be completed at one point because they provide crucial connections within the region.
I've moved from a different part of NRW to Bochum about 5 years ago and man I'm so grateful for the railways here. This video made me realize just how frequently I travel to other cities and how much I rely on the trains and subways running.
This is so exciting! You just showed my everyday commute! Sitting in a train and overtaking the slow-moving cars on the Autobahn 40 in Essen. Love that!
11:47 / 15:05 It's a very easy-to-miss detail because you'd never think of it just like that but the cool thing about the S1 - and other S-Bahn routes and RE services in the region in general - is that no matter the day, the trains on this line run 24/7 - or, technically 23/7, I guess. There's a small gap at 2-3 AM for *starting* trains but if it's still en route, trains still run during that time - even Berlin doesn't have 24/7 daily service for S-Bahn routes. While you mentioned the overlaps not really being a big thing because we can use regional rail lines (RB/RE services) to compensate these gaps, you can take them without any surcharge or separate ticket too if you got one for the S-Bahn.
I guess what wasn't mentioned in the video is the extensive regionaltrain service which is available in the region often being there instead of s bahn trains
8:14 Fun fact: Because the station for the low-floor route at Heinrich-Heine-Alle was planed with island-style-platforms. The new trams now need to have doors on both sides. While the trams on all the other low-floor routes have only doors on the right side. Still, we are lucky that they thought of the additional platforms in the first place.
In my city they had to do island platforms due to space constraints on a dual carriageway for 2 stops on a line extension, and because they mainly operate unidirectional vehicles, their solution was to run on the left hand track for that segment, with track crossings to swap sides before and after. I wonder if there's any practical reasons to not do that for this situation too or if it just wasn't thought of
@@miktr7664 Well, I can't be sure. But I think, this wouldn't work with the high frequency of trams. Considering this is in a tunnel. Buying new trams, was probably the cheepest solution.
I'm from Düsseldorf and the Stadtbahn service is interesting in the history. Düsseldorf had trams for a long time and even out of the city, connecting the cities Krefeld, Duisburg and Neuss. With Duisburg and Krefeld, they had dining cars. Some years ago, the last service stopped, because it was not worth it anymore. With Neuss, the line is short. Neuss banned the Stadtbahn out of the city. Back in the days, the tram was a round trip line. It entered from the north, went to the main station, went through the city center and then left the city on the east. The line got split but both went through the city and both ending at the other end of the city center. The Stadtbahn line now ends near the tram line at the main station (the Stadtbahn south, the tram north). Neuss even had its own tram line but like a lot of cities, got rid of them. Neuss even might want to get rid of the tram entirely in the city center. The center is car free and the tram line is just one track. When the city has some events in the center, the tram line stops short, where the Stadtbahn used to terminate. Also there are expansions planned. Its mentioned in the video the line connecting the arena and the airport but that is one step. Still not everything is final, but it looks like the line will start in Neuss at the shopping center, connecting the tram line, drive parallel to the city center, connect to the Stadtbahn in Neuss, drive on the border and connect another branch of the Stadtbahn (the one going to Krefeld) and eliminating a big detour, continue north to the arena, the airport with both stops (terminal and main railroad station) and then connecting to the city Ratingen. This line is the biggest plan and the one that would improve the network. Neuss, Meerbusch and the left rhine part of the city Düsseldorf do get faster connections between each other and to the Düsseldorf arena and airport. Just the first step would connect the arena to the airport and the railroad network at a different point. This is interesting for sport events. With European football, the fans do get separated. They usually stop the fans at the airport and run a bus shuttle service to the arena but obviously this is messy. They did this even for the Euro. There is a direct connection from Duisburg to the arena during some events but this line is long. Also the Stadtbahn service had some mockery. When they build the first part of the tunnel, it was the fastest one, because when you entered it, you left it fast. It was very short. Then in recent years they made headlines, because the new train, was to wide and during test runs hitted the station in Duisburg. In Duisburg the tram and Stadtbahn stations are behind another on the same track and the station has a different gap. For example in Essen they run them side by side but in Duisburg just behind each other. As mentioned in the video, running a long line is not really a good idea. For the U79 running to Duisburg, one trip takes 75 minutes. From mainstation to mainstation 57 minutes. With the fast train between 15 and 20 minutes and even the S-Bahn is with 30 minutes faster. During normal operation the people don't use it for the full length. It only gets interesting when there is no regular service. The railnetwork and the tram and Stadtbahn service are run by different companies and the neat part, they don't share the same union. Recently it happend that both unions were on strike on the same day but this was a historic event. But still a Stadtbahn line for the full length doesn't make much sense. The Stadtbahn is a big hybrid. At one point its a subway, in some a tram and with the rural parts it could be a train but here it doesn't fall into the law. There are trams that are a hybrid and switches between both laws. The laws dictate stuff like how the trains need to drive and what rules to follow. For example the trams in Germany drive on sight and the signals are most of the time just white lights with bars, so cars don't look at the wrong traffic lights. In Düsseldorf in the subway, they do use colored lights and even a saftey system like the railroad, where they drive in block sections but they still don't fall into the law. But one last note: who thinks that sound all nice, its a pain. Delays, bad communication and so on. I do commute daily and getting the correct information is a gamble. I started using 2 data sources for my connection and when they where conflicting, I use a 3rd source. Its fun when this doesn't give the same information as one of the 2 previous data sources. Then its a gamble and you hope for a 4th information on the station. When you get unlucky, this is also wrong or you don't get any. You may even get relayed to a 5th source on the internet and that might not even be correct as well. This sounds like I'm joking? No I'm dead serious. Just a few weeks ago I had this. I arrived at the station and got into the train. This was not listed in my apps, it didn't drove, on the outside it was listed to not enter but people didn't left the train and the doors where unlocked. I took the gamble and entered. From that platform it normally drives in the direction I want. Inside nothing happend. The apps just showed trains appearing and disappearing. On the platform it was listed that people where on the tracks and the service is halted. The website confirmed that and no mention of replacements. The estimated time shown showed me that its a gamble. The train ride would be around 5 minutes. The alternate route would be 30 minutes, when I got everything right away. The eta was 60 minutes. The bus comes all 20 minutes and there where a lot of people. Inside the train we got one information and that was the one he got from the website (I'm not joking). Outside I saw someone with a megaphone but we couldn't hear him and not everyone left the station, so I didn't worried. If it would be worse, we would get the information, right? Wrong. After 2 hours I gave up and I saw on the website, a replacement service was setup and the eta just got longer. The guy with the megaphone just said that service is stopped. I waited 15 minutes for a bus. The first one was full and I needed my nicotine. No replacement bus came within these 15 minutes. The bus I took would be the alternate route but I needed an alternate to my alternate, because to the first one he didn't drove. The alternate to the alternate was longer, because I'm not that familiar with that route but I left early, connecting to my first alternate at a different point. I was 2 and 3/4 hours later at home. As it turned out the next day, nobody was on the tracks. Someone was on a bridge above the tracks and the whole section was blocked off 8 hours. Thats why the bus did a detour, because it would have driven on that bridge. Obviously this is a delicate topic but more information would be key. "Person on track" could mean anything. It could be just some people seen on the track and the police needs to arrest them. It could be that they hit someone and they need to clean up. With both you can give a eta based on experience. When someone dares to jump, you can't give an eta. It could be minutes or hours. Also a note. A few days later, we got the same information "person on track". A coworker who leaves work an hour earlier and drives in the opposite direction, gave me the information. I looked and saw an alternate route drives and when everything on time, is not slower but I don't have much wiggle room. At some point the service was continued and the S-Bahn where I was in, got pulled to the side to let the delayed trains out. I was so nice on time and just a bit further and we would have been out of the way anyways.
As a Canadian living in Cologne, I always wished more 'urbanism' channels would discuss this region, I think it's a really interesting place that faces a lot of unique challenges and has a lot of unique solutions. I guess it often gets a bit overshadowed by what's happening nearby in the Netherlands, but I still think there's a lot of interesting things to explore when it comes to city and transit design here. Also, one thing that I'd love to see discussed in the future is the Deutschland ticket, which gives residents full use of all busses, trams, stadtbahnen, S-Bahnen and regional trains country wide for 49 euros a month.
The S7 is really cool, it’s basically a mountain railway and features Germany’s tallest railway bridge at Müngsten. Makes a really good combined half-day out alongside the Schwebebahn!
I´m a Ruhr native, and just returned from a year in the Tokyo area 3 days ago. Recently I´ve been thinking about how this region, its public transport, and specifically the rail network could be developed in a way similar to Tokyo. I hope I live to see the Ruhr area grow into more of a singular, rail-centered city (including administratively).
Let me add one neat fact that wasn't mentioned properly: Since the system is coordinated in the VRR, the numbering of trams and stadtbahnen (among others) is created in a very telling way. You will already know that "U" stands for underground (never mind the S-Bahnen here), but there are also CE (city-express bus lines) and SB (schnellbus aka fast bus lines) that follow the numbering system. The first digit stands for the core city: 1 - Essen, 2 - Recklinghausen, 3 - Bochum, 4 - Dortmund, 5 - Hagen, 6 - Wuppertal, 7 - Düsseldorf, 8 - Neuss, 9 - Duisburg, 0 - Mönchengladbach. Only the rural lower Rhine region has no leading digit. U-bahns and CE and SB buses have two-digit numbers: so you immediately see that U79 is a Düsseldorf based underground and SB67 a Wuppertal based express bus. Three-digit numbers without letters are either trams (usually the first twenty numbers) or normal buses. 302 is a Bochum based tram, 180 an Essen based Bus. The larger the number, the more likely it is not based in the city center but a town/quarter near the respective cities. Like buses 470-477 are all based in the Dortmund quarter Mengede. Or lines 591-595 are all based in the town of Wetter which is neighbouring Hagen. This is especially helpful to know in the small towns in between where two or three regions merge. Hattingen would be a good example: Lines 141, 159, 166 go to Essen, lines SB37, 308 (tram), 350, 359 go to Bochum, lines SB67, 647 goes to Wuppertal. Plus some more lines with 33x and 55x don't go near these other city centers but stay within the small towns around Hattingen.
The Deutschland Ticket has definitely helped to simplify the complex and often confusing fare system across different regions in Germany. By offering a single, nationwide ticket for public transport, it has smoothed out the "tariff jungle" that previously made traveling across different zones and states more complicated. However, it’s still quite common for the S-Bahn in this region to be delayed, making disrupted travel plans more the norm than the exception. This is especially true late at night when train frequencies decrease-after 1 am, for instance, you might even find yourself stranded. It’s advisable not to rely on the very last S-Bahn if you have a connection to catch. While you can sometimes use the ICE for certain routes, keep in mind that the costs are significantly higher.
Most people commute within their own system so that's not really and issue since for cross-network trips one would usually buy a train ticket anyway. You might not be aware of that but VRR used to be much smaller. The northwestern part was covered by VGN which was an issue as lots of people in the southern parts of Kreis Wesel commuted to work in the Ruhr Area. I went to uni in Bochum and would often take the train to see my parents. Travel within VRR was free for me, but outside of it not. So each time the train crossed into the other network I had to grab the conductor and buy an Anschlussticket for 5.90 DM which was not only expensive but also a nuissance, especially during busy periods. Some people didn't even bother, they figured, paying the fine of 40 DM if caught without a valid ticket was cheaper than getting an extra one each time anyway. If your destination was only like two or three stops away from the network border that was well worth the gamble. Going in the opposite direction was even more ridiculous. Since cross-network tickets were expensive you would buy one that would take you to the last stop in the network and then ride as a fare dodger for another one stop before you would be covered again by your monthly or annual pass.
There are actually some more lines, which are classified as RB (regional) ore RE (express), which are part of the S-Bahn-tender and function as a kind of express S-Bahn services - notably RB32 from Duisburg via Gelsenkirchen to Dortmund, which was a part of the S2 or RE49 Wesel - Essen - Wuppertal, which acts as an express version of S9 between Essen and Wuppertal. As you mentioned, the video is already quite long. But worth mentioning would be the extended plans of the VRR for exceeding services with the RRX (Rhine-Ruhr-Express) and a lot of additional S-Bahn services. (Feel free to contact me, because I actually draw them up in my previous job 😉)
IC/ICE services also run all through there as well, though without much express on the ICE trains since I think the entire region is on PZB so 160km/h max speed. Though there is the Koln>Aachen high speed line which leaves the area and has 250km/h speeds for ICE trains, and then the international ICE trains keep going into the Netherlands from Aachen.
@@mrvwbug4423 You also have parts from Cologne to Düsseldorf and Duisburg that allow for 200 km/h though these speeds cause conflicts with the other services until there's enough capacity to have long distance services on their own set
So if I understand correctly, the region has 4 levels of mass transit, with each level meant to provide faster connectivity across longer routes: 1. "Standard" Trams 2. Stadtbahn 3. The various S-Banh networks 4. The RRX (watch the bebula video!)
Almost! The "Stadtbahn" is refering to hybrids of Tram and Metro Services, that has sprouted up within certain environments. (Rebuilding from scratch after WW2, the need for gauge compatibility with national rail systems, political indecision about which transit type to commit to, economical constraints). Due to sharing both types strenghts and wekanesses (depending on the existing infrastructure and rolling stock) the Stadbahn should be nested between Trams and Metros (which you have not included), then S-Bahn (which is kind-of equivalent to commuter rail) and then RRX (which is kind-of equivalent to the Regionalexpress-Lines in other cases that are not the rhine-ruhr-region)
@@TheWeirdaholic yes, but are there any U bahns/metros in this specific region? I'm not particularly familiar with this region of Germany but I assume if there were Reece would have mentioned them
@@ErelHno, there aren't. The only true segregated service similar in conception to an U-Bahn is Wuppertal suspended monorail, but it isn't an U-Bahn, it's rather a Gadgetbahn.
5 actually, there is also IC/ICE services that run through the region, though I don't think there are any LZB (high speed) lines within the region itself, but at least one LZB line departs the region (the Koln>Aachen high speed line).
This was a very good summary of the railway services from the Rhine-Ruhr region, thank you! Tho you forgot to mention that Düsseldorf has a tram network additionaly to the Stadtbahn network
A good chunk IS actually above ground. Many of the 'Stadtbahn' have been turned underground in the city center only, or to pass underneath rivers/canals. An example is the 'High Floor' line in Dortmund, the U43. Closest to the central station is at 'Kampstraße', which was a tram hub in the past, but is now underground. Eastward, towards Wickede, you have only a few stops before it goes above ground, running on a center bit of the road, paved into the normal lanes (but with cars able to pass on the sides, in theory). This continues until Wickede, with some sections running on 'split off the road' track sections, at times.
The low floor lines aren't classic "Stadtbahn" lines to begin with. Basically just buffed trams in their current state. This is especially true for the Dortmund east west axis and the Wehrhahn lines in Düsseldorf
Some things to add (as I live in this area): • Düsseldorf has a connection to Neuss using some tram lines • Cologne is (most times) seen as part of Rhine Ruhr. The services are interconnected and planned with both in mind. • The S Bahn of Cologne will change in the future. New lines are designed using existing tracks and smaller cities should get acces to the S Bahn of Cologne/Ruhrgebiet. • There is the RRX (Rhein-Ruhr-Express) project to connect all bigger cities NRW. Its planned to have a direct connection from Cologne to Dortmund via Düsseldorf and Essen all 15 Minuten (additionally to the existing S Bahn services).
6:10 speaking of Mülheim, some of the tram lines on the map are now closed 🥲 Mülheim is the only city in Germany that has closed substantial parts of its tram network in recent years
when traveling from Hamburg to Munich, it is essential to pay attention when booking your ICE, or you might accidentally end up with one that travels through this region, inevitably picking up hours of delays in the progress
Little fact about Krefeld: The two U lines that go from Düsseldorf to Krefeld are wider gauges than the trams in Krefeld, which results in Krefeld having two gauges contained within eachother from the south east to the central station.
Oberhausen has one of my favourite bits of contemporary transport architecture - the Neue Mitte Oberhausen station for buses/trams, built to a deconstructivism design in the mid 1990s. Looks like a game of "pick up sticks" - worth a google!
I moved to Essen a month ago to start my University. I am in love with the public transit system. My Flat is kind of on the outskirts, next to the north of Helenenpark, i get Bus service every 10-20 mins to a minor public transport hub (multiple Bus lines with intersecting schedules, Tram and Metro service), 30 metres from my front door. If i time it right, i can be at my Uni in 17 minutes, Essen Main station in 20, Gelsenkirchen main station in 15 minutes. The affordable 49€-Ticket option is also amazing, allowing you to use all public transport except high speed rail for 49€ a month. I love it, and i will fight anyone who tries to take it away from me.
I think it is also worth mentioning that unlike Dortmund, in Düsseldorf, there is very comprihensive tram network on top of the Stadtbahn network. The tram network augments a lot of missed connections that are not on the stadtbahn and also provide some orbital/tangential service. And of course they are cross compatible with the other trains, with the exception of floor height.
Missing my favorit train. The RB 52, that connects Dortmund with Lüdenscheid over Hagen. Shortly before Hagen, that train crosses the Ruhr River over the 313 meter long Ruhr-Viaduct, that was constructed in 1877. Just google for a picture.
Never realized just how many different lines run through this region. For the virtual train driving enthusiasts Train Sim World has 4 routes in the Rhine-Rhur region ranging from S-bahn to ICE services to freight services.
I used to live on the southern edge of the system (Dormagen) and the fact that going on station to the south was more expensive than going 20 stations to the north was immensely frustrating to me
It’s mostly because Vrr and DB have been having major disputes for years, Hense why rrx is operated by NX and lines like the rb38 wich used to go from Düsseldorf to cologne are now split in two at the end of the Vrr region
Of course, there is one low country that you reliably don't have to go to Cologne to connect to - high-speed trains to the Netherlands stop in Düsseldorf and Duisburg as well. There are also the rare eurostar trains to Brussels that originate in Dortmund, but those tend to be at inconvenient times.
There is also a once-daily Intercity from Düsseldorf to Luxembourg! Otherwise you have to go to Koblenz regardless. This intercity is at a very inconvenient time, as it leaves Düsseldorf otoh at 13 Uhr and arrives at Luxembourg at 17 Uhr. I am not sure how useful that is to people..
@@ArcherBuissinkLuxemburg seems to have a lot of useless services. I remember the tgv from strasbourg being at useless time as well not fit for anyone actually trying to get to lux for work
Thank you for this video, I was waiting for it for a long time. It’s really interesting for me to see as someone who lives in Katowice metro area which is very similar in structure but way smaller. It shows how our transit could look like.
It's interesting to see someone look at the system from an outside perspective. I lived in thee Rhein-Ruhr region for a long time and just recently moved to Toronto. Therefore, I often compare the TTC with the VRR. The TTC/GO Transit is definitely not as advanced as the VRR, but not as bad as people tend to say.
Toronto is by far the best transit for a city in Canada, and is considered good by North American standards. My rating system for North American transit from worst to best goes "there we did a transit" (any peak time only single line commuter line, anything in Texas), subpar (Tri-Met LRT/Streetcar), average (Sound Transit, Amtrak California) , decent (LA metro, RTD light/commuter rail, CTA/Metra), good (MBTA, SEPTA, BART/CalTrain), and New York MTA haha.
And you havent even started with the regional trains which a lot use, for instance to go from Düsseldorf to Cologne, youd use a regional train, not an S-Bahn. S-Bahn and Regional trains sort of go hand in hand, both can be used with the Deutschland Ticket and depending on the destination, the Regional train can be the better option or you end up with a mix of both.
I hate that the RRX is only featured on nebula. Its not like some bonus information, without this the network is just incomplete and cant be understood. You could have seperated the trams as a bonus nebula video, but the RRX is just too important
The main axis through Cologne--Duisburg--Dortmund is quite amazing, it's a bit chaotic since there are always delays but it is amazing how high frequency and high capacity trains are there. When I lived in the area the ticketing system was a mess though, as every city had its own company and they were associated into 3 different ticket associations, inter-association travel was possible but very expensive. Fortunately Deutschlandticket ended with that mess
Since 2021 there is the "eezy" tariff (used on mobile phones, I'm using it when I'm there) , which simplifies travelling in whole NRW and is capped by 49€ per month, which is very convenient for the occasional traveller without the "Deutschland-Ticket".
I like the fact that in Germany smaller cities also have tram lines. In The Netherlands that is not the case, only the four main cities have trams, in all other cities and even between cities, the trams have disappeared in the last century. Cities between 100,000 and 250,000 don’t have trams. Not even Almere, which has 225,000 inhabitants and will grow to 300,000 in a decade, only has BRT and national rail, no metro, no tram. And Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is not connected to the tram or metro network of Amsterdam, it is only served by national rail and HSR.
@@urbanfile3861 a lot of trams also survived due to the DDRs (moderate) preservation of systems, so tiny cities like Brandenburg also have pretty decent tram systems
I've been to a couple of trade shows at the fairgrounds in Dusseldorf and was impressed by the transit system. The first time my employers' travel people left things to the last minute and our hotel was out in Krefeld. Thanks to the U70 this wasn't an issue. When I went to a show on my own I deliberately chose Krefeld, a nice little town out in the country. Yes, I went to Wuppertal. 🙂
its great to watch this especially when i know that ive been to these places, rode on these lines and my father works on the rail network here especialyl on the s1
I think it would've made more sense to have a video focused only on the heav rail network, at least that was my expectation when I saw a video covering the Rhine-Ruhr. As many are pointing out the S-bahn network works in tandem with regional services (RB and RE) and of course the RRX. This video skimmed too fast through the S-bahn lines, left the important regional rail behind and then the RRX comes as an exclusive. It's a bit disjointed and doesn't really provide that "explainer" picture we're used to. A lot of the video was consumed by the Stadbahns/trams systems which is in itself a lot of information to bundle up in a single video and that went by quite fast too. Perhaps it would've made more sense to have the extra video on Nebula be the video about the Stadbahns and other transit modes. And there's all the bits about the VRR and the other smaller transit agencies that it owns or are involved. There's so much to talk about, from history and economy of the region, history and development of rail, structure, future extensions, etc, that even with a video only on heavy rail you could probably have a longer version of the video for Nebula users. Totally understand monetizing content or offering premium extras for paid subscribers, but in my opinion the structure here could've been better, including for paid subscribers.
As a resident I often wish we had more real metro going fully unterground and having more capacities. The 'Straßenbahn' which only is underground in the city center is often overcrowded and for longer distances very slow.
I think the entire design of the regions rail system is to use the Stadtbahn within the central part of each city, then travel between cities and into the suburbs on S-bahn or Regio services.
@@mrvwbug4423 Yes, but because the cities are so close together, you sometimes have to travel between the 'outer rims' of two cities. Making all the way to main station and then take a s-bahn to the next main station and use another transport to get to the destination would often take even longer. I think that's the main problem of the system as a whole: It's planned around the individual cities and not so much on cross city transport.
It’s so cool to see your hometown (Bochum) featured in Video like this. I love our public transport, as i am living near a tram station its possible for me to get to Essen or Dortmund mainstation in 20 min, with a car I need at least 30minutes and then I’m not even parked.
Last time I holidayed in Germany we stayed in gelsenkirchen and purchased the weekly pass that encompasses the Westphalia rail and tram network, a fantastic way to get around the Ruhr area plenty of links to explore around you, why gelsenkirchen, we don’t like staying at known holiday destinations and try and stay where the locals live,
The dividing between Tram and low floor Stadtbahn is just a politic one. Every city in the region has a low floor line going through a tunnel, even Gelsenkirchen and Bonn. But only Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund call them Stadtbahn, the other cities call them tram. Düsseldorf ist the only City to divide between low floor Stadtbahn and tram - even if the overground facilities of both are quite the same and a lot of the branches are served by both tram and Stadtbahn together.
Well the low floor Stadtbahn systems have a much higher segregation and capacities, so they differ quite a lot from the tram services of Bonn and Gelsenkirchen, Essen etc.
The low Floor Stadtbahn and Tram in Düsseldorf are actually different in 3 Important Points. Only the Stadtbahn is Underground, all 7 Tram Lines are completely overground. the low Floor Stadtbahn has Doors on both sides, the Tram only on the right. and the Stadtbahn is used with 2 coppled Trains, like Stadtbahns usually are in Germany, while the Tram always consists of one single Train.
Well actually there is a connection where you can Ride from Witten, via Bochum, via Gelsenkirchen, via Essen, via Mülheim, via Duisburg, via Düsseldorf, via Krefeld to Tönnisvorst.... sooo what you said at 10:32 i did that trip one time for fun with a friend of mine
The train system in the region is so fantastic that there is absolutely no single train that is not delayed. Basically here is the train delay capital of Germany. Obviously that is because of the overload in the system, operating too much passenger and freight trains on the same tracks. The outcome is that an on time arriving ICE leaves 45 minutes late from the region. So it is usually makes sense to book a ticket through that region if you want to save some money since for delays more than 30 minutes one can have %20 delay compensation from DB.
I think the time-table-planning is fundamentally wrong in the Ruhrgebiet area. For example the RRX is often delayed by passenges blocking the doors, adding additional 1-2 minutes delay per stop. I often experience that on the route between Bochum and Cologne. Beside "Signalstörung" (signalling malfunction) , "Weichenstörung" (switch malfunction) , "Personen im Gleis" (trespassers on tracks), "Besetztes Gleis" (blocked track in station) and other stuff like that. It is impossible for the train drivers to keep up with the time table. But fortunatelly they already have started to upgrade the hole system bit by bit. I usually add an extra hour travel time (to the 40min actual travel time) when I want to go from Bochum to Düsseldorf Airport. With 15min delay in Bochum already and another 25min delay along the route I usually make it in time to the airport.
2:38: The text says "Bochum", but the tram seems like one from Duisburg (the colouring and "DVG") plus the two cars driving past have "DU" register plates. Great material anyway, thank you!
Toronto should maximize its tram network and upgrade Line 5 and 6 into high-floor LRT/Stadtbahns. Toronto should also grow a Stadtbahn network, ideally using old radial railway routes and proposals.
But are these routes potentially better suited to heavy commuter rail? North America loves to overbuild tram-trains where they should build commuter rail, prime examples the LA Metro (other than the two underground metro lines) and the RTD light rail system.
So it can be said that in the Cologne and Rhine Ruhr region there are a variety of S-Bahn, Stadtbahn and other trains on offer. But the overview can only be found via the app.
Gelsenkirchen, just north of Essen, has a fun little addendum of interconnectivity to this. S-Bahn service to Essen is pretty bad with I think only the S2 going there every 30 minutes or hour, but there is Stadtbahn going to Essen Hbf every 10 minutes... At the ass-end of Gelsenkirchen, my hometown borough of Horst. Gelsenkirchen also has 2 trams, one of which goes all the way to Bochum and being just shy of also connecting into Essen. In Horst, Essen's U11 (formerly 17) and Gelsenkirchen's 301 play a fun game of I'M NOT TOUCHNIG YOU at the station of Schloss Horst (which is 4 different platforms all in very different places and half of which pretty far away from the castle it's named after) where they sort of start sharing tracks for 2 stations, but are very differen vehicles and the tracks and stations were built separately, with the 301's trakcs running inside of the U11's tracks. When they built this in the late 90ies and early 2000s, Essen built the parts for the U11, Gelsenkirchen for the 301, and the U11 parts were done YEARS before the 301 parts (which I think are still being worked on further along the line in Buer). The northern Ruhrgebiet wasn't covered much in here, but Gelsenkirchen, Recklinghausen, Herne, Bottrop, and Castrop-Rauxel all have very interesting connections to the bigger cities of Dortmund, Bochum, and Essen, and to each other. Lumping in Düsseldorf with this is... culturally odd but yeah, VRR runs the services in all of them. It just doesn't belong to the same cluster of cities that don't stop. You can almost walk from Dortmund to Essen without ever being outside of a city. The borders are signs on the road with no other difference to be seen. Most urbanized area in all of Europe, connected by a shared history of getting off of coal.
The Stadtbahn and tram networks are really just an icing on the cake of the regional train network consisting of S-Bahn, RB and RE lines (including the RRX branding), The VRR rail network map ("VRR-Schienenschnellverkehrsplan") gives an impression how interconnected the cities in the area are. But it is always great to see on RMTransit how spaghetti it looks in real geography.
my comment has nothing to do with the transport part, but i have to add this. Ruhr has no role in shipping at all, except in Duisburg. All the other cities in the region use Rhein-Herne-Kanal for shipping. As it’s man made, it’s pretty stable and you can control its depth, and also it’s quite direct, not shaped like spaghetti, or Ruhr. Ruhr names the region, and is the southern border of the region. Also, it’s good for recreational activities and water conservation. Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Oberhausen, Essen, Bottrop, Herne… every city and industry uses the Kanal.
13:10 S28 is getting electrified now, and S7 will also be electrified in the future, probably with BEMUs to enable Through running into Düsseldorf on the S1 tracks
It might also be interesting to make a video about the Rhein-Neckar region (Rhine-Neckar) which includes the cities of Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg with the longest tram lines in Germany and, as far as I am aware, the biggest metre-gauge tram network in all of Germany. And the region has it's own S-Bahn system as well which also connects to the S-Bahn system(s) of Franfurt/Rhein-Main region and Karlsruhe.
15:24 feels a little like a missed opportunity to mention the truly unique Integral S5D95 rolling stock for the S28, which are not found anywhere else, as the company went insolvent only 3 years after starting production, after only 17 trains had been built. Those 17 trains had such severe issues that they cost the company an additional 260-300 million Austrian Schilling, or roughly 35-40 million Euros today after inflation.
The Rhine-Ruhr region is comparable with the Randstad region in our country, the Netherlands. + Just as the RRR has cities like Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg and Düsseldorf, ours has Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht. + the Rhine-Ruhr Express is named "Intercity" with us + our version of the S-Bahn is the "Sprinter" + tram networks here have a regional component as well (serving surrounding places like Amstelveen, Delft, Schiedam and Nieuwegein) Big difference is that we do not know something like a Stadtbahn (although Randstadrail between The Hague and Rotterdam comes close). But for that, the Randstad region has the R-NET brand for all public transport that is interconnected. This also includes about 100 express bus routes not served by rail vehicles (best known example is line 300 connecting Haarlem and Amsterdam Bijlmer with Schiphol Airport). Both regions are also each other's main business partners. However, the public transport between those regions? An expensive ICE service only running every 2 hours (on a track often closed for construction works) and an hourly but slow regional service Arnhem-Düsseldorf. Too close for long distance trains, too far apart for regional trains? Or is it all because of the language barrier?
As a resident, I can say the following things about the system: - The Stadtbahn/Tram system is fine, but could use do with some minor changes regarding interchanges with buses and downtimes of some lines. - The train system on the other hand needs mayor improvements, especially regarding frequency. Once an hour trains are fine if they are long and fast lines, that aren’t really used end to end very often, but are a good extension of the service provided at a busy station. But if it a short and slow line that only serves that one line that runs through the station, it is unacceptable and you would probably be better off not running it at all. - Busses can be very hit or miss, depending on which city you’re in but could use some more express services to connect train stations that are not connected via rail. - All in all the system is as mid as it gets.
To learn all about the Rhein-Ruhr Express system, check out the Nebula Plus video now: nebula.tv/videos/rmtransit-faster-than-the-sbahn-rheinruhr-express
And check out The Tim Traveller's videos on the hanging monorails of the Rhine-Ruhr region:
- Wuppertal: th-cam.com/video/9IFh6wFTJiQ/w-d-xo.html
- Düsseldorf: th-cam.com/video/NeYTtlXywUI/w-d-xo.html
- Dortmund: th-cam.com/video/9Kwpj1UOrhs/w-d-xo.html
Cheers for the shout-out Reece! (And good work on all those German pronunciations)
could you please make a video about the S Bahn Mitteldeutschland and the City tunnel Leipzig?
I think its extremely important to show people in America and Canada these globally unknown cities and their transportation. Because if we talk about Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam or London, Americans and Canadians will counter that with New York and Toronto. But with cities like Bochum and such, we are talking about medium sized cities, the size of Windsor, fake London, and countless of places in the US of the same size. Your average medium sized north American city, more than qualifies for a tram or subway network.
Yes. RMTransit previously did a video on the Métro de Rennes in France which is a city about the size of Cincinnati. It would be great if did one on the Lausanne Métro in Switzerland.
Edit: He has done a video on Lausanne!
though the rhein ruhr region isnt generally known for its public transit, its generally one of the more car dependent places of germany
@@cooltwittertag Not really. You can get around the Rhein Ruhr quite well without a car. Only problem is DB being, you know... DB...
@@LS-Moto ...and yet it isnt really known for public transit, instead being one of the more car dependent places in germany. It not being Houston is something we already know. Any city in germany has enough public transit to get around, its just that transit the region isnt really that great *compared to the rest of germany*. There's a reason why places like Essen dont have a lot of transit rider share.
@@LS-Moto the ruhr valley is good for both, i had a car here and am now mostly travelling by public transit. You can use both easily.
Except for one omission, this is an absolutely superb video. The omission is Gelsenkirchen, population 265,000, much bigger than Molheim! It should have featured in both Stadtbahn and S-Bahn discussions.
The whole north, which is underdeveloped since 70 years (they planned to build a north ring for train connections) was missed. Recklinghausen is the gate for the more rural areas and it is extremly shitty connected and from there you can only use a very bad bus network to come to the villages and towns in the north. With one bus every hour if you are lucky.
@tja9212 U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines were planned for cities such as Bottrop, Recklinghausen. Sadly, basically nothing materialized and they even closed tram lines that were supposed to become part of the U-Bahn network.
Isn’t the tram in Gelsenkirchen also part of the Bochum Tramnetwork
@@markdebruyn1212 yeah, but it basically can function on it's own.
@@markdebruyn1212 They became one, because Gelsenkirchen closed most of its services. So the rest of them joined Bochums company.
What is even more impressive are the RE trains that connect city centers and major points along all the NRW. You can arrange a trip to any major city in the region and be home the same day.
As someone who lived his entire life in NRW and now in Bochum, I take this for given and don't appreciate enough how insanely good and rare a network like this is.
@@TheYCrafter I am now in Bochum too. You guys have an almost utopia level conveniency of public transit. Yes, trains are sometimes late but most importantly they are always there. The service is frequent and covers every corner of a region. And d-ticket for 50 euros is insanely good value.
Also I am extremely grateful to Germany and German people that you let Ukrainians have a chance to set up their lives here. I have been here for a month, waiting for a travel authorization for my sister to go to USA. Living in motels and now in my friend's house.
Now having second thoughts whether it is a good idea to go to the USA. I have always dreamt about becoming a train driver, but the pay in Ukraine is like 250 euros a month. After 3-4 years of studying the language and going through apprenticeship becoming one in Germany is not an unrealistic idea.
@@schuller623 It is really easy to become a tram driver in germany since we have a shortage, especially in the ruhr valley. Just speak to some companys, literally all of them are looking to hire you. Becoming a train driver is even easier here, just talk to a recruiter at the deutsche bahn. They pay very well and the apprenticeship is paid too. A friend of mine had a really fucked up life and thought he would never get a job. The DB accepted him easily and now he makes good money driving trains. When my family moved here from Kazakhstan in the 90s, my dad had a really easy time becoming a train driver, even though his german is bad. Just try and i guarantee that you will succeed.
BTW i live in Bottrop and speak russian too, but only understand some ukrainian (even though my mum is ukrainian lmao). If you need help writing an application, i could help you. But i think nowadays you dont need one. You can just hit them up i think.
@@schuller623 Just try it. Deutsche Bahn always needs people, especially the ones who drive :D
One important thing to mention about the Rhine-Ruhr area is coal mining: The ground in some areas dropped more than 20 meters, in an uneven way, making any infrastructure build underground VERY problematic. For example, the river Emscher was converted into an overground sewer, because an underground system could easily break and in this case the sewage would pollute the groundwater, the main source of drinking water here. It takes about 15-20 years before the ground has settled after coal mining ends, so only since very recently the new sewage tunnel with 3 pumping stations finished, and renaturalisation of the Emscher started.
Building tunnels comes with extra challenges here, because not all mining operations (especially the ones close to the surface) were mapped, which makes it very difficult to plan underground routes for public transit. Some of the old shafts are actually filled with a special concrete, just to prevent the surface from breaking and leaving nothing than a big hole.
I do have Nebula, but I don't like that the RRX is in an exclusive video there. That isn't extra information, it's absolutely essential to understand the region.
This is like game developers cutting out gameplay from the core game to sell it as a DLC rather than creating additional gameplay.
Honestly this wasn’t the way I thought about breaking it into a separate video, but I’ll take your comment to heart for next time around.
Thanks.
Cut him some slack tho, incentives to get him well deserved money 😅
@@crowmob-yo6ry2019? Lmao its wayyyy before that, youtube was already all about money in 2012
@@crowmob-yo6ry Streaming video ain't cheap, you can't really blame TH-cam as they have to stay afloat. No else comparable free service survived like YT did.
@@RMTransit I think it would have been better to put the Part about the trams in a nebula exclusive, because of the mentioned obscure details and discarded Plans of future devolopment.
Whilst the RRX is a giant success, and gets turned more and more into an express s-bahn. With deticated tracks planned between Düsseldorf Benrath and Duisburg. I still cant believe, that they bought new desiro hc trains from Siemens for more capacity and they are already too small for the amount of passengers wanting to use the great RRX service
Finally, the first transit system I ever simped for got its own RM Transit video.
The Rhine Ruhr has been much requested!
one must admit that in essen the trains got stuck in car traffic too.
essen is an insanely built car-centric hell.
Essen is awful for Bikes, Cars and Public Transit. It dosent help that it is ugly af and way too expensive compared to its neighbouring cities. My driving instructor told me that when i made my driving license in Bottrop. While you can use all three here without any issues, Essen is a complete hellhole. I learned that the hard way when i used to work as a Logistics foreman in Essen.
@@BlueJayy1904 nowdays at least for bikes it’s fine.
The clear distinction made between Stadtbahn and Tram is quite interesting. Never noticed anyone living here think about them seperately, I think the words are used interchangably, alongside U-Bahn.
Great video, thank you!
I stayed just outside Düsseldorf for a couple of months last year and I definitely found the trams and the U-bahn functionally interchangeable - it was just a matter of which one served the place you were going
Thanks for watching - and they are quite distinct for sure, although you don't experience them separately !
Stadtbahn sounds more like a tram-train ala RTD light rail in the US.
@@mrvwbug4423 If I got the (German) wikipedia definition correctly it's kinda a hybrid of tram and subway/metro. It's _usually_ more disconnected from traffic unlike trams, and _usually_ has higher capacity and speeds, and _more likely_ to have several lines bundled in one tunnel than a subway. Details that can of course make a huge difference, but if you're a regular passenger and not a traffic nerd might not notice. (Or at least I never did lol)
A Stadtbahn (or tram) _can_ also intersect with the railway network, in which case it's called a tram-train.
@@RMTransit Well, it depends on the section. For instance, U75 in Düsseldorf-Eller operates alongside the 701 tram, running on the road and serving stations in short intervals. You can hear people there referring to both modes of transport as trams. At the same time, people in the city centre, would never call the U75 a tram, but only U-Bahn or Stadtbahn since it goes underground there. People in the north of Düsseldorf where the U79 to Duisburg runs on separate gound-level infrastructure are likely to call it Stadtbahn.
As an Essen resident I just want to add that the city got rid of the high-floor trams last year after the arrival of the new HF4s. However some are still being used on the 107 as that line has a weird service pattern. It usually terminates at Essen Hbf but it's "extended" all the way to Bredeney in the south during weekdays and even not at all times. It's during this extended service that the old trams come back to life. (The project to convert all double track gauge stations to also doble platform height was completed last year as well)
Interesting! Thanks for the extra context on that!
This is the rail system the North of England needs, especially Liverpool - Manchester - Leeds or Sheffield. The whole region is similarly spread out with many smaller towns and cities too and a large population but is let down by unreliable underinvested in services and is full of bottlenecks especially around Manchester. Many suburban areas and radial routes are poorly served too. Germany has its problems too but at least it kept its rail infrastructure.
You are totally right. A similarly 'tiered' system (trams/Stadtbahn, then S-Bahn/suburban rail, then high speed rail) is exactly what the North needs, and is the only way to effectively encourage modal shift. Here in West Yorkshire we're gearing up to build a tram between Bradford and Leeds, but I fear that the bigger picture is being missed and that people think that trams will fix everything. Unfortunately with HS2 and the Northern Hub schemes scrapped we won't see the full potential of a system like this.
Yep, there is a lot which could be emulated in the North!
@@RMTransit It's similarly spread out with more than one major centre but on a smaller scale in my county, Hertfordshire. Easy and quick to travel into London but almost hopeless if you want to travel from one county town to another by public transport as there are no east-west railways resulting in loads of congestion especially on the M25. Major gaps in services between Outer London and county towns too, which means most people just drive. The best we have is one express bus an hour that gets stuck in traffic with everything else!
Problem is everything up north is spread out between multiple TOCs that run very different services. Northern is kinda the de facto commuter operator in the region and is state owned, but isn't great for crossing between cities in the north. Then you have TPE who runs more regional and inter-city services across the north and into Scotland, but don't necessarily have good transfers to Northern, they're also state owned. XC runs various inter-city services through the region, but has horrific overcrowding on their trains. AWC and LNWR connect Birmingham, Manchester, Crewe, Liverpool and Blackpool and AWC runs up to Scotland as well, but don't connect to the northeast. LNER, Hull Trains, Lumo and Grand Central all connect the cities of the northeast (Leeds, York, Hull, Newcastle) to London and then EMR connects Sheffield, Derby and Bradford to London, but again with disjointed routes and not a lot of good transfers.
@@mrvwbug4423 well that isn't exactly a difficult problem to fix: end all the TOC non-sense, bring back British Rail, have a separate division for intercity rail and a separate division for regional rail that works closely with local authorities. And this last point is important, local councils need to be more empowered and responsible for attending local and regional mobility needs, just like it happens in London and Manchester with TfL and TfGM. I'm concerned that Labour's plan for a "nationalised" British Rail isn't ambitious enough.
Infrastructure is a more challenging problem to solve.
Behind all this the bigger problem is the historical lack of public investment in public transport. Having no strategy for public transport and independent bodies to plan and execute rail and transit in general is the problem. Lack of continued development and investment is a problem since it makes every single project unique and more expensive and less likely to be actually delivered and within budget and on time. Treasury is the problem because it forces transit to always have a business case where the benefits of mobility aren't considered.
Glück Auf aus dem Pott🖤
There is so much more to the region, there are some other new projects like the Citybahn in Essen or a new S-Bahn route in Duisburg. Also not everything in this region evolves positively, unfortunately a section of a tram line in Mühlheim was closed very recently, in a completely irrational way. Also some of the maps were not up to date, here this tram line still exists. Also the line S9 has two branches in the north, one to Haltern am See and the other new branch to Recklinghausen Hbf little to the south, where there also ends an S2 branch. This new S9 branch connected the city of Herten to the rail network, that previously was the largest city in Germany without a rail connection. Also there are new X-Bus rapid transit lines in the nothern part of the region, connecting smaller cities without a rail connection. There are also many ideas and future plans for new lines or extensions, like a tram-train line between Bochum and Essen. There are many of these ideas but unfortunately those ideas do not get much attention.
This region has so many interesting aspects, one video is too short for everything, especially considering its history of coal mining and its current rise as a tech hub with multiple large universities.
Considering that the VRR contains multiple transport companies, each might get its own attention, especially locally to the main cities: DSW21, Bogestra, Ruhrbahn, DVG, Rheinbahn
@cmdlp4178 while the closures of the Mülheim lines were not necessary, imo it's not too bad, because all of these closed lines performed poor in terms of ridership, so it's not a big loss. The other lines do good in this regard.
@cmdlp4178 but yes, the region is absolutely massive with lots to offer in terms of history and transit. Both aspects kinda go in hand actually.
The tram line in Mülheim which got closed, did not really have enough ridership.
There is one school, but this is also in walking distance to the city station, so it is not that bad. Everything else, which is important, can be reached with the 112.
Also the city has so much dept. I think it is like 9k per resident, so it must save somewhere.
The line that was shortened years ago, which goes to the airport, that was a rather questionable one, considering today, with the new Zeppelinhall, there way more events at the airport
The general area is such a good idea of how interconnected cities can work. I mean so much to love about the region.
It is, though it does need a lot of work - especially the S-Bahn frequencies!
Yeah I can't really think of a region elsewhere that is better connected. Maybe some parts of Japan, though I know the density of rail networks drops by a ton once you're out of the Tokyo metro area.
Düsseldorf is a hugely underrated city. Amazing city for transit nerds.
Transit wise, yes. Nature and surroundings wise probably one of the worst in the region (I worked there for a few years)
That's why I'm going there soon!
@@young_diogenes Nature and surroundings wise worst in the Region? You have a Giant Hill Forest, multiple big Lakes, a giant Castle Garden in the South and the Rhine with the left Side of it being completely natural and Green. Düsseldorf ist known for it's Beautiful Greenery. You definitely must have worked in the wrong City. i think you may think of Neuss? which is the Neighbour city of Düsseldorf, but is not Part of Düsseldorf, rather it's own city. Düsseldorf has Südpark, Nordpark, Hofgarten, Spree'scher Graben, Volksgarten, Rheinpark Golzheim, Botanischer Garten, Grafenberger Wald, Schlosspark Benrath, and even more Stunning Green Spaces. you should definetly check this Places out. The City is also full of grandious old Buildings aswell as Modern Glass High Rises. Especially at the Medienhafen they have both in the same Place.
Perhaps the current DB reliabilty/puntuality issues might have warranted a mention. I was in the Ruhr area earlier in the year on a cultual/city break. Visiting opera, theatre, spas etc in several centres (Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg this time) has always been a breeze in the past via local and regional transport. This time I don't think there was a single S-Bahn trip over three days that didn't involve delays, changed platforms etc. Such a shame because the system is so good.
Its important to consider that the Stadtbahn (U-Bahn in Rhine Ruhr context) was planned in addition to the S-Bahn. It was supposed to cover the routes that were not and cannot be served by the S-Bahn. Some of these lines are the north extension of the U35, the northern tunnel of Essen all the way to Gelsenkirchen Buer, and the formerly planned U-Bahn between Bochum and Gelsenkirchen all the way to GE Buer as well, with Gelsenkirchen having a massive currently underused tunnel partially built. These are some of the lines that really should be completed at one point because they provide crucial connections within the region.
As any good urban transit should, filling in the gaps which would not be cost effective to serve with regional transit!
Your pronunciation of the city names, especially Bochum, is really impressive. Thank you for the video.
Well he got a lot of negative feedback from his video about Frankfurt. 🤣
I wouldn't call it impressive, but at least understandable
I've moved from a different part of NRW to Bochum about 5 years ago and man I'm so grateful for the railways here. This video made me realize just how frequently I travel to other cities and how much I rely on the trains and subways running.
This is so exciting! You just showed my everyday commute! Sitting in a train and overtaking the slow-moving cars on the Autobahn 40 in Essen. Love that!
11:47 / 15:05
It's a very easy-to-miss detail because you'd never think of it just like that but the cool thing about the S1 - and other S-Bahn routes and RE services in the region in general - is that no matter the day, the trains on this line run 24/7 - or, technically 23/7, I guess. There's a small gap at 2-3 AM for *starting* trains but if it's still en route, trains still run during that time - even Berlin doesn't have 24/7 daily service for S-Bahn routes. While you mentioned the overlaps not really being a big thing because we can use regional rail lines (RB/RE services) to compensate these gaps, you can take them without any surcharge or separate ticket too if you got one for the S-Bahn.
really important, bc. its the region of the 'Schichtarbeiter' :D
I guess what wasn't mentioned in the video is the extensive regionaltrain service which is available in the region often being there instead of s bahn trains
8:14 Fun fact: Because the station for the low-floor route at Heinrich-Heine-Alle was planed with island-style-platforms. The new trams now need to have doors on both sides. While the trams on all the other low-floor routes have only doors on the right side.
Still, we are lucky that they thought of the additional platforms in the first place.
This is nice in general to enable island platforms! And turning without loops! I wish Toronto had this!
In my city they had to do island platforms due to space constraints on a dual carriageway for 2 stops on a line extension, and because they mainly operate unidirectional vehicles, their solution was to run on the left hand track for that segment, with track crossings to swap sides before and after. I wonder if there's any practical reasons to not do that for this situation too or if it just wasn't thought of
@@miktr7664 Well, I can't be sure. But I think, this wouldn't work with the high frequency of trams. Considering this is in a tunnel. Buying new trams, was probably the cheepest solution.
@@5thElem3nt if it‘s in a tunnel, that sounds fair enough… a flyover would probably be a lot more expensive.
@@RMTransit still single ended vehicles, but usually they put two back to back on the bussy rutes
I'm from Düsseldorf and the Stadtbahn service is interesting in the history. Düsseldorf had trams for a long time and even out of the city, connecting the cities Krefeld, Duisburg and Neuss. With Duisburg and Krefeld, they had dining cars. Some years ago, the last service stopped, because it was not worth it anymore.
With Neuss, the line is short. Neuss banned the Stadtbahn out of the city. Back in the days, the tram was a round trip line. It entered from the north, went to the main station, went through the city center and then left the city on the east. The line got split but both went through the city and both ending at the other end of the city center. The Stadtbahn line now ends near the tram line at the main station (the Stadtbahn south, the tram north). Neuss even had its own tram line but like a lot of cities, got rid of them. Neuss even might want to get rid of the tram entirely in the city center. The center is car free and the tram line is just one track. When the city has some events in the center, the tram line stops short, where the Stadtbahn used to terminate.
Also there are expansions planned. Its mentioned in the video the line connecting the arena and the airport but that is one step. Still not everything is final, but it looks like the line will start in Neuss at the shopping center, connecting the tram line, drive parallel to the city center, connect to the Stadtbahn in Neuss, drive on the border and connect another branch of the Stadtbahn (the one going to Krefeld) and eliminating a big detour, continue north to the arena, the airport with both stops (terminal and main railroad station) and then connecting to the city Ratingen.
This line is the biggest plan and the one that would improve the network. Neuss, Meerbusch and the left rhine part of the city Düsseldorf do get faster connections between each other and to the Düsseldorf arena and airport. Just the first step would connect the arena to the airport and the railroad network at a different point. This is interesting for sport events. With European football, the fans do get separated. They usually stop the fans at the airport and run a bus shuttle service to the arena but obviously this is messy. They did this even for the Euro. There is a direct connection from Duisburg to the arena during some events but this line is long.
Also the Stadtbahn service had some mockery. When they build the first part of the tunnel, it was the fastest one, because when you entered it, you left it fast. It was very short. Then in recent years they made headlines, because the new train, was to wide and during test runs hitted the station in Duisburg. In Duisburg the tram and Stadtbahn stations are behind another on the same track and the station has a different gap. For example in Essen they run them side by side but in Duisburg just behind each other.
As mentioned in the video, running a long line is not really a good idea. For the U79 running to Duisburg, one trip takes 75 minutes. From mainstation to mainstation 57 minutes. With the fast train between 15 and 20 minutes and even the S-Bahn is with 30 minutes faster. During normal operation the people don't use it for the full length. It only gets interesting when there is no regular service. The railnetwork and the tram and Stadtbahn service are run by different companies and the neat part, they don't share the same union. Recently it happend that both unions were on strike on the same day but this was a historic event. But still a Stadtbahn line for the full length doesn't make much sense.
The Stadtbahn is a big hybrid. At one point its a subway, in some a tram and with the rural parts it could be a train but here it doesn't fall into the law. There are trams that are a hybrid and switches between both laws. The laws dictate stuff like how the trains need to drive and what rules to follow. For example the trams in Germany drive on sight and the signals are most of the time just white lights with bars, so cars don't look at the wrong traffic lights. In Düsseldorf in the subway, they do use colored lights and even a saftey system like the railroad, where they drive in block sections but they still don't fall into the law.
But one last note: who thinks that sound all nice, its a pain. Delays, bad communication and so on. I do commute daily and getting the correct information is a gamble. I started using 2 data sources for my connection and when they where conflicting, I use a 3rd source. Its fun when this doesn't give the same information as one of the 2 previous data sources. Then its a gamble and you hope for a 4th information on the station. When you get unlucky, this is also wrong or you don't get any. You may even get relayed to a 5th source on the internet and that might not even be correct as well.
This sounds like I'm joking? No I'm dead serious. Just a few weeks ago I had this. I arrived at the station and got into the train. This was not listed in my apps, it didn't drove, on the outside it was listed to not enter but people didn't left the train and the doors where unlocked. I took the gamble and entered. From that platform it normally drives in the direction I want. Inside nothing happend. The apps just showed trains appearing and disappearing. On the platform it was listed that people where on the tracks and the service is halted. The website confirmed that and no mention of replacements. The estimated time shown showed me that its a gamble. The train ride would be around 5 minutes. The alternate route would be 30 minutes, when I got everything right away. The eta was 60 minutes. The bus comes all 20 minutes and there where a lot of people.
Inside the train we got one information and that was the one he got from the website (I'm not joking). Outside I saw someone with a megaphone but we couldn't hear him and not everyone left the station, so I didn't worried. If it would be worse, we would get the information, right? Wrong. After 2 hours I gave up and I saw on the website, a replacement service was setup and the eta just got longer. The guy with the megaphone just said that service is stopped.
I waited 15 minutes for a bus. The first one was full and I needed my nicotine. No replacement bus came within these 15 minutes. The bus I took would be the alternate route but I needed an alternate to my alternate, because to the first one he didn't drove. The alternate to the alternate was longer, because I'm not that familiar with that route but I left early, connecting to my first alternate at a different point. I was 2 and 3/4 hours later at home.
As it turned out the next day, nobody was on the tracks. Someone was on a bridge above the tracks and the whole section was blocked off 8 hours. Thats why the bus did a detour, because it would have driven on that bridge. Obviously this is a delicate topic but more information would be key. "Person on track" could mean anything. It could be just some people seen on the track and the police needs to arrest them. It could be that they hit someone and they need to clean up. With both you can give a eta based on experience. When someone dares to jump, you can't give an eta. It could be minutes or hours.
Also a note. A few days later, we got the same information "person on track". A coworker who leaves work an hour earlier and drives in the opposite direction, gave me the information. I looked and saw an alternate route drives and when everything on time, is not slower but I don't have much wiggle room. At some point the service was continued and the S-Bahn where I was in, got pulled to the side to let the delayed trains out. I was so nice on time and just a bit further and we would have been out of the way anyways.
I always took the 709 to school but never used it to get to Neuss (just use the S-Bahn)
Gotta love being able to see the university that you attend within the first 10 seconds of the video.
As a Canadian living in Cologne, I always wished more 'urbanism' channels would discuss this region, I think it's a really interesting place that faces a lot of unique challenges and has a lot of unique solutions. I guess it often gets a bit overshadowed by what's happening nearby in the Netherlands, but I still think there's a lot of interesting things to explore when it comes to city and transit design here.
Also, one thing that I'd love to see discussed in the future is the Deutschland ticket, which gives residents full use of all busses, trams, stadtbahnen, S-Bahnen and regional trains country wide for 49 euros a month.
I think the Chemnitzer Modell needs some love, too. Basically a modern interurban connecting huge parts of the Erzgebirge
Is that the route between Dresden and Chemnitz that runs tilting DMUs?
The S7 is really cool, it’s basically a mountain railway and features Germany’s tallest railway bridge at Müngsten. Makes a really good combined half-day out alongside the Schwebebahn!
I'll remember that for my visit next year . S7 !
thanks for the info! Gonna do it soon!
Thanks, I will probably do a day with S7, Schwebebahn and Solingen Trolley Buses
@@boing7679 Hello .. that's my plan also .. but for a few days .. will stay in Wuppertal .
I´m a Ruhr native, and just returned from a year in the Tokyo area 3 days ago. Recently I´ve been thinking about how this region, its public transport, and specifically the rail network could be developed in a way similar to Tokyo. I hope I live to see the Ruhr area grow into more of a singular, rail-centered city (including administratively).
Let me add one neat fact that wasn't mentioned properly: Since the system is coordinated in the VRR, the numbering of trams and stadtbahnen (among others) is created in a very telling way. You will already know that "U" stands for underground (never mind the S-Bahnen here), but there are also CE (city-express bus lines) and SB (schnellbus aka fast bus lines) that follow the numbering system. The first digit stands for the core city: 1 - Essen, 2 - Recklinghausen, 3 - Bochum, 4 - Dortmund, 5 - Hagen, 6 - Wuppertal, 7 - Düsseldorf, 8 - Neuss, 9 - Duisburg, 0 - Mönchengladbach. Only the rural lower Rhine region has no leading digit. U-bahns and CE and SB buses have two-digit numbers: so you immediately see that U79 is a Düsseldorf based underground and SB67 a Wuppertal based express bus. Three-digit numbers without letters are either trams (usually the first twenty numbers) or normal buses. 302 is a Bochum based tram, 180 an Essen based Bus. The larger the number, the more likely it is not based in the city center but a town/quarter near the respective cities. Like buses 470-477 are all based in the Dortmund quarter Mengede. Or lines 591-595 are all based in the town of Wetter which is neighbouring Hagen. This is especially helpful to know in the small towns in between where two or three regions merge. Hattingen would be a good example: Lines 141, 159, 166 go to Essen, lines SB37, 308 (tram), 350, 359 go to Bochum, lines SB67, 647 goes to Wuppertal. Plus some more lines with 33x and 55x don't go near these other city centers but stay within the small towns around Hattingen.
Thank you i have been waiting for this video since the first videos about Germany!
This is going to help me so much in my nimby rails save
@@jasperjenkin6645 TRUE
The Wuppertal Schwebibahn 😅
Sooo cute
Good video! Cant wait for the video about Bonn and Cologne video
The Deutschland Ticket has definitely helped to simplify the complex and often confusing fare system across different regions in Germany. By offering a single, nationwide ticket for public transport, it has smoothed out the "tariff jungle" that previously made traveling across different zones and states more complicated. However, it’s still quite common for the S-Bahn in this region to be delayed, making disrupted travel plans more the norm than the exception. This is especially true late at night when train frequencies decrease-after 1 am, for instance, you might even find yourself stranded. It’s advisable not to rely on the very last S-Bahn if you have a connection to catch. While you can sometimes use the ICE for certain routes, keep in mind that the costs are significantly higher.
Most people commute within their own system so that's not really and issue since for cross-network trips one would usually buy a train ticket anyway. You might not be aware of that but VRR used to be much smaller. The northwestern part was covered by VGN which was an issue as lots of people in the southern parts of Kreis Wesel commuted to work in the Ruhr Area. I went to uni in Bochum and would often take the train to see my parents. Travel within VRR was free for me, but outside of it not. So each time the train crossed into the other network I had to grab the conductor and buy an Anschlussticket for 5.90 DM which was not only expensive but also a nuissance, especially during busy periods. Some people didn't even bother, they figured, paying the fine of 40 DM if caught without a valid ticket was cheaper than getting an extra one each time anyway. If your destination was only like two or three stops away from the network border that was well worth the gamble. Going in the opposite direction was even more ridiculous. Since cross-network tickets were expensive you would buy one that would take you to the last stop in the network and then ride as a fare dodger for another one stop before you would be covered again by your monthly or annual pass.
Perfect timing, I go on vacation there tomorrow and now I have a video about it
There are actually some more lines, which are classified as RB (regional) ore RE (express), which are part of the S-Bahn-tender and function as a kind of express S-Bahn services - notably RB32 from Duisburg via Gelsenkirchen to Dortmund, which was a part of the S2 or RE49 Wesel - Essen - Wuppertal, which acts as an express version of S9 between Essen and Wuppertal.
As you mentioned, the video is already quite long. But worth mentioning would be the extended plans of the VRR for exceeding services with the RRX (Rhine-Ruhr-Express) and a lot of additional S-Bahn services. (Feel free to contact me, because I actually draw them up in my previous job 😉)
IC/ICE services also run all through there as well, though without much express on the ICE trains since I think the entire region is on PZB so 160km/h max speed. Though there is the Koln>Aachen high speed line which leaves the area and has 250km/h speeds for ICE trains, and then the international ICE trains keep going into the Netherlands from Aachen.
@@mrvwbug4423 You also have parts from Cologne to Düsseldorf and Duisburg that allow for 200 km/h though these speeds cause conflicts with the other services until there's enough capacity to have long distance services on their own set
I also need to point out that Krefeld is where Siemens Mobility's rolling stock is manufactured, primarily the Desiro and Velaro trainsets. :D
The people of Ontario cannot comprehend such complex city rail. It is like a fish understanding interstellar travel.
So if I understand correctly, the region has 4 levels of mass transit, with each level meant to provide faster connectivity across longer routes:
1. "Standard" Trams
2. Stadtbahn
3. The various S-Banh networks
4. The RRX (watch the bebula video!)
Almost! The "Stadtbahn" is refering to hybrids of Tram and Metro Services, that has sprouted up within certain environments. (Rebuilding from scratch after WW2, the need for gauge compatibility with national rail systems, political indecision about which transit type to commit to, economical constraints). Due to sharing both types strenghts and wekanesses (depending on the existing infrastructure and rolling stock) the Stadbahn should be nested between Trams and Metros (which you have not included), then S-Bahn (which is kind-of equivalent to commuter rail) and then RRX (which is kind-of equivalent to the Regionalexpress-Lines in other cases that are not the rhine-ruhr-region)
@@TheWeirdaholic yes, but are there any U bahns/metros in this specific region?
I'm not particularly familiar with this region of Germany but I assume if there were Reece would have mentioned them
@@ErelHno, there aren't. The only true segregated service similar in conception to an U-Bahn is Wuppertal suspended monorail, but it isn't an U-Bahn, it's rather a Gadgetbahn.
5 actually, there is also IC/ICE services that run through the region, though I don't think there are any LZB (high speed) lines within the region itself, but at least one LZB line departs the region (the Koln>Aachen high speed line).
@@mrvwbug4423 Duisburg to Düsseldorf and Düsseldorf to Cologne has LZB for 200km/h used by IC/ICE. RE services via the same route go 160km/h on PZB.
This was a very good summary of the railway services from the Rhine-Ruhr region, thank you! Tho you forgot to mention that Düsseldorf has a tram network additionaly to the Stadtbahn network
A good chunk IS actually above ground. Many of the 'Stadtbahn' have been turned underground in the city center only, or to pass underneath rivers/canals.
An example is the 'High Floor' line in Dortmund, the U43. Closest to the central station is at 'Kampstraße', which was a tram hub in the past, but is now underground. Eastward, towards Wickede, you have only a few stops before it goes above ground, running on a center bit of the road, paved into the normal lanes (but with cars able to pass on the sides, in theory). This continues until Wickede, with some sections running on 'split off the road' track sections, at times.
The low floor lines aren't classic "Stadtbahn" lines to begin with. Basically just buffed trams in their current state. This is especially true for the Dortmund east west axis and the Wehrhahn lines in Düsseldorf
Some things to add (as I live in this area):
• Düsseldorf has a connection to Neuss using some tram lines
• Cologne is (most times) seen as part of Rhine Ruhr. The services are interconnected and planned with both in mind.
• The S Bahn of Cologne will change in the future. New lines are designed using existing tracks and smaller cities should get acces to the S Bahn of Cologne/Ruhrgebiet.
• There is the RRX (Rhein-Ruhr-Express) project to connect all bigger cities NRW. Its planned to have a direct connection from Cologne to Dortmund via Düsseldorf and Essen all 15 Minuten (additionally to the existing S Bahn services).
Cologne mentioned,
happiness achived.
6:10 speaking of Mülheim, some of the tram lines on the map are now closed 🥲 Mülheim is the only city in Germany that has closed substantial parts of its tram network in recent years
Always nice hearing a shout-out to Tim !
Mentioning the Düsseldorf Airport Sky Train in one sentence with the Schwebebahn makes any Wuppertal resident get a stomach ache
This was news to me aswell, as I have never been in that region apart from one visit to Cologne.
when traveling from Hamburg to Munich, it is essential to pay attention when booking your ICE, or you might accidentally end up with one that travels through this region, inevitably picking up hours of delays in the progress
Was ist die beste route? Durch Berlin? Oder durch Hannover?
I was waiting for this video for ever :D
Greetings from Essen, Germany
I was waiting for this video
12:14 S6 terminates in Köln-Nippes, not Köln Hbf.
@@marbe166 ist actually Köln worringen 😅 if not delayed more than 10mins
Little fact about Krefeld: The two U lines that go from Düsseldorf to Krefeld are wider gauges than the trams in Krefeld, which results in Krefeld having two gauges contained within eachother from the south east to the central station.
Oberhausen has one of my favourite bits of contemporary transport architecture - the Neue Mitte Oberhausen station for buses/trams, built to a deconstructivism design in the mid 1990s. Looks like a game of "pick up sticks" - worth a google!
I moved to Essen a month ago to start my University. I am in love with the public transit system. My Flat is kind of on the outskirts, next to the north of Helenenpark, i get Bus service every 10-20 mins to a minor public transport hub (multiple Bus lines with intersecting schedules, Tram and Metro service), 30 metres from my front door. If i time it right, i can be at my Uni in 17 minutes, Essen Main station in 20, Gelsenkirchen main station in 15 minutes. The affordable 49€-Ticket option is also amazing, allowing you to use all public transport except high speed rail for 49€ a month. I love it, and i will fight anyone who tries to take it away from me.
I think it is also worth mentioning that unlike Dortmund, in Düsseldorf, there is very comprihensive tram network on top of the Stadtbahn network. The tram network augments a lot of missed connections that are not on the stadtbahn and also provide some orbital/tangential service. And of course they are cross compatible with the other trains, with the exception of floor height.
Spending time in nearby Bonn, so this video is really timely and very helpful!
Missing my favorit train. The RB 52, that connects Dortmund with Lüdenscheid over Hagen.
Shortly before Hagen, that train crosses the Ruhr River over the 313 meter long Ruhr-Viaduct,
that was constructed in 1877. Just google for a picture.
Never realized just how many different lines run through this region. For the virtual train driving enthusiasts Train Sim World has 4 routes in the Rhine-Rhur region ranging from S-bahn to ICE services to freight services.
props for pronouncing Duisburg and Düsseldorf correctly
I used to live on the southern edge of the system (Dormagen) and the fact that going on station to the south was more expensive than going 20 stations to the north was immensely frustrating to me
luckily this is not a problem now, with both the D-Ticket but also Eezy NRW you have Land or federal ticket solutions :)
It’s mostly because Vrr and DB have been having major disputes for years, Hense why rrx is operated by NX and lines like the rb38 wich used to go from Düsseldorf to cologne are now split in two at the end of the Vrr region
Of course, there is one low country that you reliably don't have to go to Cologne to connect to - high-speed trains to the Netherlands stop in Düsseldorf and Duisburg as well. There are also the rare eurostar trains to Brussels that originate in Dortmund, but those tend to be at inconvenient times.
There is also a once-daily Intercity from Düsseldorf to Luxembourg! Otherwise you have to go to Koblenz regardless. This intercity is at a very inconvenient time, as it leaves Düsseldorf otoh at 13 Uhr and arrives at Luxembourg at 17 Uhr. I am not sure how useful that is to people..
@@ArcherBuissinkLuxemburg seems to have a lot of useless services. I remember the tgv from strasbourg being at useless time as well not fit for anyone actually trying to get to lux for work
Nice Video! Greetings from Essen 🎉
Thank you for this video,
I was waiting for it for a long time.
It’s really interesting for me to see as someone who lives in Katowice metro area which is very similar in structure but way smaller. It shows how our transit could look like.
It's interesting to see someone look at the system from an outside perspective. I lived in thee Rhein-Ruhr region for a long time and just recently moved to Toronto. Therefore, I often compare the TTC with the VRR. The TTC/GO Transit is definitely not as advanced as the VRR, but not as bad as people tend to say.
Toronto is by far the best transit for a city in Canada, and is considered good by North American standards. My rating system for North American transit from worst to best goes "there we did a transit" (any peak time only single line commuter line, anything in Texas), subpar (Tri-Met LRT/Streetcar), average (Sound Transit, Amtrak California) , decent (LA metro, RTD light/commuter rail, CTA/Metra), good (MBTA, SEPTA, BART/CalTrain), and New York MTA haha.
And you havent even started with the regional trains which a lot use, for instance to go from Düsseldorf to Cologne, youd use a regional train, not an S-Bahn. S-Bahn and Regional trains sort of go hand in hand, both can be used with the Deutschland Ticket and depending on the destination, the Regional train can be the better option or you end up with a mix of both.
That depends, if you live on the S6 or S11 routes it is often quicker to take the S-Bahn then double back for the RRX.
lovely!! i was waiting for this for so long,very nice
I hate that the RRX is only featured on nebula. Its not like some bonus information, without this the network is just incomplete and cant be understood. You could have seperated the trams as a bonus nebula video, but the RRX is just too important
The main axis through Cologne--Duisburg--Dortmund is quite amazing, it's a bit chaotic since there are always delays but it is amazing how high frequency and high capacity trains are there. When I lived in the area the ticketing system was a mess though, as every city had its own company and they were associated into 3 different ticket associations, inter-association travel was possible but very expensive. Fortunately Deutschlandticket ended with that mess
Since 2021 there is the "eezy" tariff (used on mobile phones, I'm using it when I'm there) , which simplifies travelling in whole NRW and is capped by 49€ per month, which is very convenient for the occasional traveller without the "Deutschland-Ticket".
@@michaelknapp9091 that's cool. When I lived in NRW a single day ticket could have been easy 35€ if you made a weird long route..
Solingen very infamous in Germany nowadays........In solidarity with the victims of the attack R.I.P
I waited so much of this Video! Thank you!
I like the fact that in Germany smaller cities also have tram lines. In The Netherlands that is not the case, only the four main cities have trams, in all other cities and even between cities, the trams have disappeared in the last century. Cities between 100,000 and 250,000 don’t have trams. Not even Almere, which has 225,000 inhabitants and will grow to 300,000 in a decade, only has BRT and national rail, no metro, no tram. And Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is not connected to the tram or metro network of Amsterdam, it is only served by national rail and HSR.
Germany is the only western country which didn't systematically dismiss its tram networks after WW2.
Along with Austria and Switzerland.
@@urbanfile3861 a lot of trams also survived due to the DDRs (moderate) preservation of systems, so tiny cities like Brandenburg also have pretty decent tram systems
I've been to a couple of trade shows at the fairgrounds in Dusseldorf and was impressed by the transit system. The first time my employers' travel people left things to the last minute and our hotel was out in Krefeld. Thanks to the U70 this wasn't an issue. When I went to a show on my own I deliberately chose Krefeld, a nice little town out in the country.
Yes, I went to Wuppertal. 🙂
its great to watch this especially when i know that ive been to these places, rode on these lines and my father works on the rail network here especialyl on the s1
I live there and it is so normal for me but cool to see it shown like this.
Great Video (as always) ✌️ greetings from Essen!
I've been waiting for this for a long time
I used to live in Bonn and I've been waiting on the Bonn-Cologne video for a while. Hopefully we get it soon!
I think it would've made more sense to have a video focused only on the heav rail network, at least that was my expectation when I saw a video covering the Rhine-Ruhr.
As many are pointing out the S-bahn network works in tandem with regional services (RB and RE) and of course the RRX. This video skimmed too fast through the S-bahn lines, left the important regional rail behind and then the RRX comes as an exclusive. It's a bit disjointed and doesn't really provide that "explainer" picture we're used to.
A lot of the video was consumed by the Stadbahns/trams systems which is in itself a lot of information to bundle up in a single video and that went by quite fast too.
Perhaps it would've made more sense to have the extra video on Nebula be the video about the Stadbahns and other transit modes. And there's all the bits about the VRR and the other smaller transit agencies that it owns or are involved.
There's so much to talk about, from history and economy of the region, history and development of rail, structure, future extensions, etc, that even with a video only on heavy rail you could probably have a longer version of the video for Nebula users.
Totally understand monetizing content or offering premium extras for paid subscribers, but in my opinion the structure here could've been better, including for paid subscribers.
As a resident I often wish we had more real metro going fully unterground and having more capacities. The 'Straßenbahn' which only is underground in the city center is often overcrowded and for longer distances very slow.
Stadtbahn Rhein Ruhr
I think the entire design of the regions rail system is to use the Stadtbahn within the central part of each city, then travel between cities and into the suburbs on S-bahn or Regio services.
@@mrvwbug4423 Yes, but because the cities are so close together, you sometimes have to travel between the 'outer rims' of two cities. Making all the way to main station and then take a s-bahn to the next main station and use another transport to get to the destination would often take even longer. I think that's the main problem of the system as a whole: It's planned around the individual cities and not so much on cross city transport.
It’s so cool to see your hometown (Bochum) featured in Video like this. I love our public transport, as i am living near a tram station its possible for me to get to Essen or Dortmund mainstation in 20 min, with a car I need at least 30minutes and then I’m not even parked.
Last time I holidayed in Germany we stayed in gelsenkirchen and purchased the weekly pass that encompasses the Westphalia rail and tram network, a fantastic way to get around the Ruhr area plenty of links to explore around you, why gelsenkirchen, we don’t like staying at known holiday destinations and try and stay where the locals live,
The dividing between Tram and low floor Stadtbahn is just a politic one.
Every city in the region has a low floor line going through a tunnel, even Gelsenkirchen and Bonn. But only Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund call them Stadtbahn, the other cities call them tram. Düsseldorf ist the only City to divide between low floor Stadtbahn and tram - even if the overground facilities of both are quite the same and a lot of the branches are served by both tram and Stadtbahn together.
*every city except Krefeld
Well the low floor Stadtbahn systems have a much higher segregation and capacities, so they differ quite a lot from the tram services of Bonn and Gelsenkirchen, Essen etc.
The low Floor Stadtbahn and Tram in Düsseldorf are actually different in 3 Important Points. Only the Stadtbahn is Underground, all 7 Tram Lines are completely overground. the low Floor Stadtbahn has Doors on both sides, the Tram only on the right. and the Stadtbahn is used with 2 coppled Trains, like Stadtbahns usually are in Germany, while the Tram always consists of one single Train.
Well actually there is a connection where you can Ride from Witten, via Bochum, via Gelsenkirchen, via Essen, via Mülheim, via Duisburg, via Düsseldorf, via Krefeld to Tönnisvorst.... sooo what you said at 10:32 i did that trip one time for fun with a friend of mine
Besides Düsseldorf Hbf and Essen Hbf there are many more huge railhubs in the region, the most important being Dortmund Hbf and Duisburg Hbf
The train system in the region is so fantastic that there is absolutely no single train that is not delayed. Basically here is the train delay capital of Germany. Obviously that is because of the overload in the system, operating too much passenger and freight trains on the same tracks. The outcome is that an on time arriving ICE leaves 45 minutes late from the region. So it is usually makes sense to book a ticket through that region if you want to save some money since for delays more than 30 minutes one can have %20 delay compensation from DB.
I think the time-table-planning is fundamentally wrong in the Ruhrgebiet area. For example the RRX is often delayed by passenges blocking the doors, adding additional 1-2 minutes delay per stop. I often experience that on the route between Bochum and Cologne. Beside "Signalstörung" (signalling malfunction) , "Weichenstörung" (switch malfunction) , "Personen im Gleis" (trespassers on tracks), "Besetztes Gleis" (blocked track in station) and other stuff like that. It is impossible for the train drivers to keep up with the time table. But fortunatelly they already have started to upgrade the hole system bit by bit.
I usually add an extra hour travel time (to the 40min actual travel time) when I want to go from Bochum to Düsseldorf Airport. With 15min delay in Bochum already and another 25min delay along the route I usually make it in time to the airport.
2:38: The text says "Bochum", but the tram seems like one from Duisburg (the colouring and "DVG") plus the two cars driving past have "DU" register plates. Great material anyway, thank you!
At 2:42 the picture is also not anywhere in Düsseldorf but at the most western station of Wuppertal, Vohwinkel.
Toronto should maximize its tram network and upgrade Line 5 and 6 into high-floor LRT/Stadtbahns. Toronto should also grow a Stadtbahn network, ideally using old radial railway routes and proposals.
But are these routes potentially better suited to heavy commuter rail? North America loves to overbuild tram-trains where they should build commuter rail, prime examples the LA Metro (other than the two underground metro lines) and the RTD light rail system.
Such a contrast with the equivalent UK region the M62 corridor Liverpool-Manchester-Huddersfield-Leeds
So it can be said that in the Cologne and Rhine Ruhr region there are a variety of S-Bahn, Stadtbahn and other trains on offer. But the overview can only be found via the app.
Gelsenkirchen, just north of Essen, has a fun little addendum of interconnectivity to this. S-Bahn service to Essen is pretty bad with I think only the S2 going there every 30 minutes or hour, but there is Stadtbahn going to Essen Hbf every 10 minutes... At the ass-end of Gelsenkirchen, my hometown borough of Horst.
Gelsenkirchen also has 2 trams, one of which goes all the way to Bochum and being just shy of also connecting into Essen. In Horst, Essen's U11 (formerly 17) and Gelsenkirchen's 301 play a fun game of I'M NOT TOUCHNIG YOU at the station of Schloss Horst (which is 4 different platforms all in very different places and half of which pretty far away from the castle it's named after) where they sort of start sharing tracks for 2 stations, but are very differen vehicles and the tracks and stations were built separately, with the 301's trakcs running inside of the U11's tracks. When they built this in the late 90ies and early 2000s, Essen built the parts for the U11, Gelsenkirchen for the 301, and the U11 parts were done YEARS before the 301 parts (which I think are still being worked on further along the line in Buer).
The northern Ruhrgebiet wasn't covered much in here, but Gelsenkirchen, Recklinghausen, Herne, Bottrop, and Castrop-Rauxel all have very interesting connections to the bigger cities of Dortmund, Bochum, and Essen, and to each other. Lumping in Düsseldorf with this is... culturally odd but yeah, VRR runs the services in all of them. It just doesn't belong to the same cluster of cities that don't stop. You can almost walk from Dortmund to Essen without ever being outside of a city. The borders are signs on the road with no other difference to be seen. Most urbanized area in all of Europe, connected by a shared history of getting off of coal.
The Stadtbahn and tram networks are really just an icing on the cake of the regional train network consisting of S-Bahn, RB and RE lines (including the RRX branding), The VRR rail network map ("VRR-Schienenschnellverkehrsplan") gives an impression how interconnected the cities in the area are. But it is always great to see on RMTransit how spaghetti it looks in real geography.
my comment has nothing to do with the transport part, but i have to add this.
Ruhr has no role in shipping at all, except in Duisburg. All the other cities in the region use Rhein-Herne-Kanal for shipping. As it’s man made, it’s pretty stable and you can control its depth, and also it’s quite direct, not shaped like spaghetti, or Ruhr.
Ruhr names the region, and is the southern border of the region. Also, it’s good for recreational activities and water conservation.
Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Oberhausen, Essen, Bottrop, Herne… every city and industry uses the Kanal.
I live in Düsseldorf, it also has a extensive Tram Network
13:10 S28 is getting electrified now, and S7 will also be electrified in the future, probably with BEMUs to enable Through running into Düsseldorf on the S1 tracks
S28 in years,the red Flirts were sold or rented by DB
When you talk about Cologne / Bonn - please hit me up! Lifelong resident and nerd.
It might also be interesting to make a video about the Rhein-Neckar region (Rhine-Neckar) which includes the cities of Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg with the longest tram lines in Germany and, as far as I am aware, the biggest metre-gauge tram network in all of Germany. And the region has it's own S-Bahn system as well which also connects to the S-Bahn system(s) of Franfurt/Rhein-Main region and Karlsruhe.
15:24 feels a little like a missed opportunity to mention the truly unique Integral S5D95 rolling stock for the S28, which are not found anywhere else, as the company went insolvent only 3 years after starting production, after only 17 trains had been built. Those 17 trains had such severe issues that they cost the company an additional 260-300 million Austrian Schilling, or roughly 35-40 million Euros today after inflation.
The Rhine-Ruhr region is comparable with the Randstad region in our country, the Netherlands.
+ Just as the RRR has cities like Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg and Düsseldorf, ours has Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht.
+ the Rhine-Ruhr Express is named "Intercity" with us
+ our version of the S-Bahn is the "Sprinter"
+ tram networks here have a regional component as well (serving surrounding places like Amstelveen, Delft, Schiedam and Nieuwegein)
Big difference is that we do not know something like a Stadtbahn (although Randstadrail between The Hague and Rotterdam comes close).
But for that, the Randstad region has the R-NET brand for all public transport that is interconnected. This also includes about 100 express bus routes not served by rail vehicles (best known example is line 300 connecting Haarlem and Amsterdam Bijlmer with Schiphol Airport).
Both regions are also each other's main business partners.
However, the public transport between those regions? An expensive ICE service only running every 2 hours (on a track often closed for construction works) and an hourly but slow regional service Arnhem-Düsseldorf.
Too close for long distance trains, too far apart for regional trains? Or is it all because of the language barrier?
As a resident, I can say the following things about the system:
- The Stadtbahn/Tram system is fine, but could use do with some minor changes regarding interchanges with buses and downtimes of some lines.
- The train system on the other hand needs mayor improvements, especially regarding frequency. Once an hour trains are fine if they are long and fast lines, that aren’t really used end to end very often, but are a good extension of the service provided at a busy station. But if it a short and slow line that only serves that one line that runs through the station, it is unacceptable and you would probably be better off not running it at all.
- Busses can be very hit or miss, depending on which city you’re in but could use some more express services to connect train stations that are not connected via rail.
- All in all the system is as mid as it gets.