Transportation in Cologne
Encyclopedia
This article covers transportation in and around the city of Cologne
, Germany
.
systems. The beltways were laid out during the end of the 19th and in the early 20th centuries and today are still being complemented and extended. Their development originated in the work of architects and urban designers such as Karl Henrici, Josef Stübben and Fritz Schumacher
as well as former Cologne mayors Hermann Heinrich Becker
and Konrad Adenauer
. They include the Cologne Ring
, Innere Kanalstraße, the Cologne Belt, Militärringstraße and the Cologne Beltway.
. They include Pfälzischer, Bergischer and Clevischer Ring (extending into Düsseldorfer Straße), Stadtautobahn (extending into BAB 4) and Deutz-Kalker-Straße (extending into Kalker Hauptstraße and Olpener Straße).
Arterial roads west of the Rhine mostly start at the Cologne Inner Ring. They include Bonner Straße (extending into BAB 555), Vorgebirgstraße, Luxemburger Straße, Dürener Straße, Aachener Straße, Venloer Straße and Neusser Straße (extending into Neusser Landstraße).
in the 1920s under the leadership of Mayor Konrad Adenauer
. The first German limited access highway (autobahn) was opened in 1932 between Cologne and Bonn
. Today, this is A 555
. In 1965 Cologne became the first German city to be fully encircled by a beltway. Shortly after the Second World War reconstruction plans by, among others, Rudolf Schwarz
called for a downtown bypass freeway (the "Stadtautobahn" ) as a centerpiece of rebuilding the city. These schemes were only partially executed though, due to opposition by environmental groups. The completed section became Bundesstraße (Federal Road) B 55a which begins at the Zoobrücke (Zoo Bridge) and meets with A 4 and A 3 autobahns at the Cologne East interchange. Nevertheless, it is referred to as Stadtautobahn by most locals. However another project anticipated even before the war by planner and architect Fritz Schumacher
in the 1920s has fared better. The Nord-Süd-Fahrt (North-South-Drive), a four/six lane downtown expressway
, was completed in 1972.
In 2005 the stretch of A 3 between the Cologne East and Heumar interchange
s, which forms part of the eastern section of the beltway, was widened to eight lanes. Work will continue on widening the remaining portions of the A 3 between the Cologne East and Leverkusen interchanges until 2010.
Service with Intercity
and ICE
-trains stopping at Köln Hauptbahnhof
(Cologne Central Station), Köln Messe/Deutz and Flughafen Köln/Bonn. The first railway was opened in 1839 by the defunct Rheinische Eisenbahngesellschaft (Rhenanian Railway Company) on the line from Cologne via Aachen
to Belgium
, today's Cologne–Aachen high-speed railway. A Central Station was erected in 1859 to connect the lines of five different railway companies, which mostly had different stations before.
Cologne also has Thalys
train service to connect to cities in different countries such as Amsterdam
, Brussels
, and Paris
.
operates an extensive light rail
and rapid transit
system (partially underground) serving Cologne and some neighboring cities. Its name derives from the German term for Light Rail
, Stadtbahn
. It is operated by the Kölner Verkehrs-Betriebe (KVB) (Cologne Transit Company) and is part of the Rhine-Sieg Transit Association. The rail system stretches across 192 kilometers with 11 lines. Two lines (16 and 18) link the system to the neighboring transport system of Bonn
. The Cologne Stadtbahn is not a true subway system, even though a large part of the system operates underground, especially in the downtown area. Instead it is a rapid tram system, each line crosses at least one street at street level without absolute right of way.
The Cologne Stadtbahn traces its beginnings to the year 1877, when the first horse-drawn tram line was opened. The first stretch of an underground route network was completed in 1968. Underground construction in the downtown Cologne area is often obstructed by the fact that archeologists in Cologne, one of Germany
's oldest cities, have legal rights to dig in all future building sites within the medieval city limits before all heavy construction machinery. Currently the average cruising speed is 26.6 kilometers per hour (2006).
s in Germany. Ports include Deutz, Godorf, Mülheim and Niehl I and II.
. It is shared with the neighbouring city of Bonn (Cologne/Bonn Region
). It's the sixth largest airport in Germany while in terms of cargo flights it is No. 2. In 2007 the number of passengers climbed to about 10.5 million. The current Airport was opened to civilian traffic in 1951 by the British armed forces, which used the former airport in Cologne Ossendorf increasingly for their own military purposes. A completely new terminal was built in 1970, supplementing the hitherto makeshift buildings. This building was adjoined by an extension in 2000, called Terminal 2, which has been planned by German-American architect Helmut Jahn
. Terminal 1, which the building from 1970 is called since then, had already acquired preservation
status for its easily recognizable brutalist
concrete architecture.
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
Road transport
Ring roads
The city of Cologne possesses one of the most comprehensive urban ring roadRing road
A ring road, orbital motorway, beltway, circumferential highway, or loop highway is a road that encircles a town or city...
systems. The beltways were laid out during the end of the 19th and in the early 20th centuries and today are still being complemented and extended. Their development originated in the work of architects and urban designers such as Karl Henrici, Josef Stübben and Fritz Schumacher
Fritz Schumacher (architect)
Fritz Schumacher was a German architect and urban designer.Schumacher was born into a diplomatic family in Bremen. The family Schumacher has been living there since 15th century....
as well as former Cologne mayors Hermann Heinrich Becker
Hermann Heinrich Becker
Hermann Heinrich Becker was a German politician and member of the DFP. Becker was born to Dr. Hermann Becker and Theodora Helene Caroline Wilhelmine Friedrike Becker, née Krackrügge...
and Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman. He was the chancellor of the West Germany from 1949 to 1963. He is widely recognised as a person who led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that had forged close relations with old enemies France,...
. They include the Cologne Ring
Cologne Ring
The Cologne Ring is a semi-circular, some 6 km long urban boulevard in Innenstadt, Cologne and the city's busiest and most prominent street system...
, Innere Kanalstraße, the Cologne Belt, Militärringstraße and the Cologne Beltway.
Arterial roads
Arterial roads east of the Rhine all start in Deutz. Deutz is a neighborhood in InnenstadtInnenstadt, Cologne
Innenstadt is the central city district of the City of Cologne in Germany.The district was established with the last communal land reform in 1975, and comprises Cologne's historic old town , the Gründerzeit era new town plus the right-Rhenish district of Deutz...
. They include Pfälzischer, Bergischer and Clevischer Ring (extending into Düsseldorfer Straße), Stadtautobahn (extending into BAB 4) and Deutz-Kalker-Straße (extending into Kalker Hauptstraße and Olpener Straße).
Arterial roads west of the Rhine mostly start at the Cologne Inner Ring. They include Bonner Straße (extending into BAB 555), Vorgebirgstraße, Luxemburger Straße, Dürener Straße, Aachener Straße, Venloer Straße and Neusser Straße (extending into Neusser Landstraße).
Highways
Freeway construction was already a major issue in CologneCologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
in the 1920s under the leadership of Mayor Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman. He was the chancellor of the West Germany from 1949 to 1963. He is widely recognised as a person who led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that had forged close relations with old enemies France,...
. The first German limited access highway (autobahn) was opened in 1932 between Cologne and Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
. Today, this is A 555
Bundesautobahn 555
Bundesautobahn 555 , connecting the cities of Cologne and Bonn, was constructed between 1929 and 1932, and opened to traffic on August 6, 1932....
. In 1965 Cologne became the first German city to be fully encircled by a beltway. Shortly after the Second World War reconstruction plans by, among others, Rudolf Schwarz
Rudolf Schwarz (architect)
Rudolf Schwarz was a German architect known for his work on Kirche St. Fronleichnam, Aachen. He also played a decisive role in the reconstruction of Cologne after the Second World War. After conducting Cologne's reconstruction authority between 1947 and 1952 he contributed to the rebuilding of the...
called for a downtown bypass freeway (the "Stadtautobahn" ) as a centerpiece of rebuilding the city. These schemes were only partially executed though, due to opposition by environmental groups. The completed section became Bundesstraße (Federal Road) B 55a which begins at the Zoobrücke (Zoo Bridge) and meets with A 4 and A 3 autobahns at the Cologne East interchange. Nevertheless, it is referred to as Stadtautobahn by most locals. However another project anticipated even before the war by planner and architect Fritz Schumacher
Fritz Schumacher (architect)
Fritz Schumacher was a German architect and urban designer.Schumacher was born into a diplomatic family in Bremen. The family Schumacher has been living there since 15th century....
in the 1920s has fared better. The Nord-Süd-Fahrt (North-South-Drive), a four/six lane downtown expressway
Limited-access road
A limited-access road known by various terms worldwide, including limited-access highway, dual-carriageway and expressway, is a highway or arterial road for high-speed traffic which has many or most characteristics of a controlled-access highway , including limited or no access to adjacent...
, was completed in 1972.
In 2005 the stretch of A 3 between the Cologne East and Heumar interchange
Interchange (road)
In the field of road transport, an interchange is a road junction that typically uses grade separation, and one or more ramps, to permit traffic on at least one highway to pass through the junction without directly crossing any other traffic stream. It differs from a standard intersection, at which...
s, which forms part of the eastern section of the beltway, was widened to eight lanes. Work will continue on widening the remaining portions of the A 3 between the Cologne East and Leverkusen interchanges until 2010.
Rail transport
Mass transit
Cologne has Deutsche BahnDeutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...
Service with Intercity
InterCity
InterCity is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe...
and ICE
InterCityExpress
The Intercity-Express or ICE is a system of high-speed trains predominantly running in Germany and neighbouring countries. It is the highest service category offered by DB Fernverkehr and is the flagship of Deutsche Bahn...
-trains stopping at Köln Hauptbahnhof
Köln Hauptbahnhof
Köln Hauptbahnhof is the central railway station in Cologne, Germany.The station is an important local, national and international hub, with many ICE, Thalys and Intercity trains calling there, as well as regional RegionalExpress, RegionalBahn and local S-Bahn trains...
(Cologne Central Station), Köln Messe/Deutz and Flughafen Köln/Bonn. The first railway was opened in 1839 by the defunct Rheinische Eisenbahngesellschaft (Rhenanian Railway Company) on the line from Cologne via Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
to Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, today's Cologne–Aachen high-speed railway. A Central Station was erected in 1859 to connect the lines of five different railway companies, which mostly had different stations before.
Cologne also has Thalys
Thalys
Thalys is an international high-speed train operator originally built around the high-speed line between Paris and Brussels. This track is shared with Eurostar trains that go from Paris or Brussels to London via Lille and the Channel Tunnel and with French domestic TGV trains. Thalys reaches...
train service to connect to cities in different countries such as Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Light rail and rapid transit
The Cologne StadtbahnCologne Stadtbahn
The Cologne Stadtbahn is a light rail system in the German city of Cologne, including several surrounding cities...
operates an extensive light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
and rapid transit
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
system (partially underground) serving Cologne and some neighboring cities. Its name derives from the German term for Light Rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
, Stadtbahn
Stadtbahn
A ' is a tramway or light railway that includes segments built to rapid transit standards, usually as part of a process of conversion to a metro railway, mainly by the building of tunnels in the central city area....
. It is operated by the Kölner Verkehrs-Betriebe (KVB) (Cologne Transit Company) and is part of the Rhine-Sieg Transit Association. The rail system stretches across 192 kilometers with 11 lines. Two lines (16 and 18) link the system to the neighboring transport system of Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
. The Cologne Stadtbahn is not a true subway system, even though a large part of the system operates underground, especially in the downtown area. Instead it is a rapid tram system, each line crosses at least one street at street level without absolute right of way.
The Cologne Stadtbahn traces its beginnings to the year 1877, when the first horse-drawn tram line was opened. The first stretch of an underground route network was completed in 1968. Underground construction in the downtown Cologne area is often obstructed by the fact that archeologists in Cologne, one of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
's oldest cities, have legal rights to dig in all future building sites within the medieval city limits before all heavy construction machinery. Currently the average cruising speed is 26.6 kilometers per hour (2006).
Water transport
Cologne Ports (HGK) is one of the largest operators for inland portInland port
The term inland port is used in two different but related ways to mean either a port on an inland waterway or an inland site carrying out some functions of a seaport.- As a port on an inland waterway :...
s in Germany. Ports include Deutz, Godorf, Mülheim and Niehl I and II.
Air transport
The name of Cologne's international Airport is Konrad-Adenauer-FlughafenCologne Bonn Airport
Cologne/Bonn Airport is an international airport located in the district of Porz in the city of Cologne, Germany, and is surrounded by the Wahner Heide nature reserve. The airport is centrally located in the Cologne/Bonn Region southeast of Cologne city centre and northeast of Bonn...
. It is shared with the neighbouring city of Bonn (Cologne/Bonn Region
Cologne/Bonn Region
The Cologne/Bonn Region , also known as Cologne/Bonn Metropolitan Region is a metropolitan area in North Rhine-Westfalia, Germany, covering the cities of Cologne, Bonn and Leverkusen, as well as the districts of Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis, Oberbergischer Kreis, Rhein-Erft-Kreis and Rhein-Sieg-Kreis...
). It's the sixth largest airport in Germany while in terms of cargo flights it is No. 2. In 2007 the number of passengers climbed to about 10.5 million. The current Airport was opened to civilian traffic in 1951 by the British armed forces, which used the former airport in Cologne Ossendorf increasingly for their own military purposes. A completely new terminal was built in 1970, supplementing the hitherto makeshift buildings. This building was adjoined by an extension in 2000, called Terminal 2, which has been planned by German-American architect Helmut Jahn
Helmut Jahn
Helmut Jahn is a German-American architect, well known for designs such as the US$800 million Sony Center on the Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, the Messeturm in Frankfurt and the One Liberty Place, formerly the tallest building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Suvarnabhumi Airport, an international...
. Terminal 1, which the building from 1970 is called since then, had already acquired preservation
Historic preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
status for its easily recognizable brutalist
Brutalist architecture
Brutalist architecture is a style of architecture which flourished from the 1950s to the mid 1970s, spawned from the modernist architectural movement.-The term "brutalism":...
concrete architecture.