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Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr

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Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr
AbbreviationVRR
Named afterrivers Rhine and Ruhr
FormationVRR GmbH: January 1, 1980; 44 years ago (1980-01-01)

ZV VRR: January 1, 1996; 28 years ago (1996-01-01)

VRR AöR: September 28, 2004; 20 years ago (2004-09-28)
DissolvedVRR GmbH: September 2006; 18 years ago (2006-09)
TypeStatutory corporation
Legal statusAnstalt des öffentlichen Rechts
HeadquartersAugustastraße 1
45879 Gelsenkirchen
Region
Ruhr, Lower Rhine region, parts of the Rhine-Ruhr
Vorstandssprecherin
Gabriele Matz
Vorstand
José Luis Castrillo
SubsidiariesZV VRR
NVN
ZV VRR FaIn-EB
Staff182 (2019)
Websitehttps://www.vrr.de

The Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (German: [fɛɐ̯ˈkeːɐ̯s.fɛɐ̯ˌbʊnt ˈʁaɪn ˈʁuːɐ̯]), abbreviated VRR, is a public transport association (Verkehrsverbund) in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It covers most of the Ruhr area, as well as neighbouring parts of the Lower Rhine region, including Düsseldorf and thus large parts of the Rhine-Ruhr conurbation. It was founded on 1 January 1980, and is Europe’s largest body of such kind, covering an area of some 5,000 km2 (1,900 sq mi) with more than 7.8 million inhabitants, spanning as far as Dorsten in the north, Dortmund in the east, Langenfeld in the south, and Mönchengladbach and the Dutch border in the west.

Structure and responsibilities

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The VRR is tasked with coordinating public transport in its area. This means the following:[1][2][3][4]

  • setting and developing the fare system (“VRR-Tarif”)
    • redistributing ticket revenue onto the transport companies
  • coordinating local train services (Schienenpersonennahverkehr, SPNV) within its area as public service obligations (PSO)
  • integrating the public transport system
    • setting standards and guidelines for passenger information and bus/tram stop facilities
    • coordination between transport companies, local authorities and Land authorities
  • financing partial subsidies for bus and tram companies according to § 11 (2) and § 11a ÖPNVG NRW
  • coordinating Land subsidies to transport companies and local authorities according to § 12 and § 13 ÖPNVG NRW

Governance

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Officially, 24 cities and districts form the Zweckverband VRR (ZV VRR), and an additional 2 districts the Nahverkehrs-Zweckverband Niederrhein (NVN). Together, the ZV VRR and the NVN form the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr AöR, which in addition cooperates with further transport companies.[5]

The member cities and districts of the Zweckverband VRR (ZV VRR) are:

The members of the Nahverkehrs-Zweckverband Niederrhein (NVN) are the districts of Kleve and Wesel.

The municipal and district councils send representatives to the two Zweckverband councils (Verbandsversammlung), which in turn elect the main decision making body, the administrative council (Verwaltungsrat) of the VRR AöR, and other committees. The Verwaltungsrat elects the administrative board of the VRR AöR (Vorstand), currently Gabriele Matz and José Luis Castrillo.[1][6]

In addition, there are departments within the VRR dealing with different matters, such as marketing or law. Two Land institutions are located within the VRR structure: Kompetenzcenter Digitalisierung NRW (KCD) and Kompetenzcenter Sicherheit (KCS).

Through the ZV VRR Eigenbetrieb Fahrzeuge und Infrastruktur (ZV VRR FaIn-EB), the VRR also buys and/or owns the rolling stock for some, but not all, of its PSO rail operations.[1]

Transport companies

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These above mentioned cities’ and districts’ and other associated transport companies thus operate under the VRR fare scheme:[5]

The following rail companies operate S-Bahn or regional train services in the VRR area and accept VRR tickets:

Line numbering scheme

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With the introduction of the VRR in 1980 a new line numbering system for all bus, tram and Stadtbahn lines in the VRR area was introduced. The VRR was divided into ten regions, which were assigned a prefix digit (e.g. 4 for Dortmund), the first digit in the three-digit line number representing that prefix. The last two digits are the individual line number. These are the existing prefixes:

Stadtbahn lines are identified with the prefix "U" followed by the prefix and a one-digit identifiers. The prefixes 2, 5, 9 and 0 are not used for Stadtbahn lines. The Wuppertal Schwebebahn is officially line 60, but because it does not run underground, the U prefix is not used.

After the integration of the former Verkehrsgemeinschaft Niederrhein (VGN) area north of Duisburg, route numbers were unchanged, i.e. representing no prefix.

  • Express buses are called Schnellbus and have the prefix SB followed by a two-digit-number. None of these numbers is a key number.
  • Semi-fast buses are called City-Express and have the prefix CE followed by a two-digit-number. As with the Schnellbusse none of these numbers is a key number.
  • Taxi buses are AST – AnrufSammelTaxi or ALT – AnrufLinienTaxi or Taxibus
  • In some cities the local buses have an own numbering system, e.g. the buses in Velbert are called Ortsbus, their line number consists of an OV followed by a one- or two-digit number.
  • In some cities the night buses are called NachtExpress – NE
Map of the complete Rhine-Ruhr Stadtbahn system network

As of 2019, the VRR network consists of 1098 lines,[5] of which there are:

History

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Ridership since 1996

In 2004, roughly 1 billion trips were made by way of the VRR network.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Der Verbund". Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (in German). Retrieved 2021-06-26.
  2. ^ "Verbundaufgaben". Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (in German). Retrieved 2021-06-26.
  3. ^ "SPNV-Aufgabenträgerschaft". Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (in German). Retrieved 2021-06-26.
  4. ^ "ÖPNV-Investitionen". Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (in German). Retrieved 2021-06-26.
  5. ^ a b c "Verbundbericht 2019/2020" (PDF) (in German). Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr. p. 67. Retrieved 2021-06-26.
  6. ^ "Politische Gremien". Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (in German). Retrieved 2021-06-26.
  7. ^ "Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr - Homepage - Welcome to the VRR". Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (VRR). Retrieved 2013-10-23.
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