Aside from plentiful services on the IC/ICE networks centred on the
soon-to-be rebuilt Dortmund Hauptbahnhof (handling 150,000 daily); heavy
rail routes provide much local transport through DB's S-Bahn and
regional operations. However, higher frequencies and closer stops are
available on the commuter services of the local utilities group,
Dortmunder Stadtwerke AG, branded as DSW21.
With so many interests in the area, including 'Dortmund Airport 21',
13km (8 miles) to the east and the suspended H-Bahn system at Dortmund
University, DSW21 has a clear view of its role: "To set the city in
motion. Over 127 million customers use the well-structured network of
buses, trams and trains every year".
Less overtly anti-car than is normal when public transport is being
promoted, the authority operates a parking guidance system to direct
drivers to one of 7,600 parking places in 14 multi-storey or underground
car parks.
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| Inside a Dortmunder U-Bahn wagon, line 42, Grevel-Hombruch, developed in 1980s |
INFRASTRUCTURE
DSW21's rail-based transport is of two standard gauge types. The
majority stems from the attempt in the 1960s to establish an inter-urban
light rail system (Stadtbahn) to connect and pass through the centres
of adjoining cities in the Rhein-Ruhr region.
Although not realised on the regional front, as with fellow NRW city
Düsseldorf, the scheme did yield a core high-floor 'supertram' operation
largely devoid of road conflicts and only emerging from tunnels
(totalling 17.5km) when away from the city centre.
Routes are on two in-tunnel lines that cross at Stadtgarten
Interchange in central Dortmund, linked at the southern end near the
Westfalenhallen and Westfalenstadion (Signal Iduna Park) entertainments
area just to the south. This link avoids reversal, with routes switching
identities as they return along the tunnel opposite that on which they
arrived. Branches from the two core lines provide six 'U'-designated
Stadtbahn routes.
The other mode is represented by the two tram routes on a branching
double-track section on an east-west axis, survivors of a vastly bigger
system. Segregated from the Stadtbahn except at the common Dorstfeld
depot, the 403/404 services (to be re-designated as U43/U44) are due to
be being rerouted in 2008 via a new 2.3km (1.4 mile) tunnel between
Ostentor and and Heinrichstrasse.
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