The Ruhr, also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km2 and a population of over 5 million (2017), it is the largest urban area in Germany. It consists of several large cities bordered by the rivers Ruhr to the south, Rhine to the west, and Lippe to the north. In the southwest it borders the Bergisches Land. It is considered part of the larger Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region of more than 10 million people, which is the third largest in Western Europe, behind only London and Paris.
Gelsenkirchen is the 25th most populous city of Germany and the 11th most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher River, it lies at the centre of the Ruhr, the largest urban area of Germany, of which it is the fifth largest city after Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg and Bochum. The Ruhr is located in the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region, one of Europe's largest urban areas. Gelsenkirchen is the fifth largest city of Westphalia after Dortmund, Bochum, Bielefeld and Münster, and it is one of the southernmost cities in the Low German dialect area. The city is home to the football club Schalke 04, which is named after Gelsenkirchen-Schalke. The club's current stadium Veltins-Arena, however, is located in Gelsenkirchen-Erle.
Herne is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area directly between the cities of Bochum, and Gelsenkirchen.
Gladbeck is a town in the district of Recklinghausen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
The Emscher is a river, a tributary of the Rhine, that flows through the Ruhr area in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. Its overall length is 83 kilometres (52 mi) with an mean outflow near the mouth into the lower Rhine of 16 m3/s (570 cu ft/s).
The Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr, 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.
The Rhine–Herne Canal is a 45.6-kilometre-long (28.3 mi) transportation canal in the Ruhr area of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with five canal locks. The canal was built over a period of eight years and connects the harbour in Duisburg on the Rhine with the Dortmund-Ems Canal near Henrichenburg, following the valley of the Emscher. It was widened in the 1980s. The Rhein-Herne canal ship was designed specifically for this canal; normally of about 1300–1350 ton capacity, it has a maximum draft of 2.50 metres (8.2 ft), a length of approximately 80 metres (260 ft), and maximum beam of 9.50 metres (31.2 ft).
The Bochum Stadtbahn is a light rail line in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, linking the cities of Bochum and Herne. It is operated by BOGESTRA, and is integrated into the Rhine-Ruhr Stadtbahn network. It consists of a single Stadtbahn line, which includes a tunnel section between the city centers of Bochum and Herne.
The Wanne-Herner Eisenbahn und Hafen GmbH is a railway and canal port operating company based around the Rhine-Herne Canal in the Ruhr area of Germany
The Industrial Heritage Trail links tourist attractions related to the industrial heritage in the Ruhr area in Germany. It is a part of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. The series of routes were developed between 1989 and 1999, however additions are still being made.
The Witten/Dortmund, Oberhausen/Duisburg railway is one of the most important railways in Germany. It is the main axis of long distance and regional rail transport on the east–west axis of the Ruhr and is served by Intercity-Express, InterCity, Regional-Express, Regionalbahn and S-Bahn trains.
The Heitkamp BauHolding GmbH with headquarters in Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia, is a Gmbh — equivalent to a limited liability company in the US or limited liability partnership in the UK — involved in specialized construction work in various construction sectors. It is a holding company with 1,200 total employees across all of its locations and generates US$365.77 million in sales. There are 6 companies in the Heitkamp BauHolding GmbH group of companies.
The actual boundaries of the Ruhr vary slightly depending on the source, but a good working definition is to define the Lippe and Ruhr as its northern and southern boundaries respectively, the Rhine as its western boundary, and the town of Hamm as the eastern limit.
Herne station was opened in the inner city of Herne in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1847 together with the Cologne-Minden trunk line. It was located between the village of Herne, which had about 1,000 inhabitants, and the moated castle of Schloss Strünkede and was south of the current station on Von-der-Heydt-Strasse. It soon had a connection to the more southerly city of Bochum, which until 14 years later did not have its own station. For this reason the station was called Herne-Bochum until 1855.
The Oberhausen-Osterfeld Süd–Hamm railway, also called the Hamm-Osterfeld line, is a 76-kilometre long double-track electrified main line railway at the northern edge of the Ruhr in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Ruhr.2010 – Kulturhauptstadt Europas was the name of the campaign in Germany's Ruhr region that earned it recognition as a European Capital of Culture in 2010. This was the first time a region was considered, as Essen represented all 53 towns in the region in the application. Other cultural capitals were in the same year the Hungarian Pécs (Pécs2010) and Istanbul in Turkey, where similar campaigns were held.
The Tetrahedron in Bottrop is a walkable steel structure in the form of a tetrahedron with a side length of 60m, resting on four 9m tall concrete pillars. It is located in Bottrop, Germany, on top of the mine dump Halde Beckstraße and serves as the town's landmark. It was opened on German Unity Day 3 October 1995.
The Bochum/Gelsenkirchen tramway network is a network of tramways focused on Bochum and Gelsenkirchen, two cities in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
The Lippeverband is a public German water board (“Wasserwirtschaftsverband”) located in Dortmund and responsible for 3.280 km² of the Lippe catchment from Lippborg down to the river Rhine with 1.4 Mio. citizens. The main tasks are wastewater discharge and treatment, flood protection, groundwater management, settlement of claims caused by hard coal mining, river restoration and protection of ecosystems.
The Emschergenossenschaft is the oldest and biggest public German water board, („Wasserwirtschaftsverband”) located in Essen and responsible for the 865 km2 Emscher catchment with 2.2 million citizens. The main tasks are wastewater discharge and treatment, flood protection, groundwater management, settlement of claims caused by hard coal mining, river restoration and protection of ecosystems.
