Düsseldorf Airport ground transport

Düsseldorf is the gateway to the Rhine-Ruhr, the densest urban region in Germany, and its airport is closer to its city than almost any other in this guide — eight kilometres. The connection has one step that catches people out. The terminals are not at the railway station: an automated monorail called the SkyTrain links them, running from about 03:45 to 00:45, every three and a half to seven minutes, taking seven minutes end to end. It is <em>not</em> a free shuttle. It runs on a VRR public-transport ticket — but that is the same ticket you need for the onward train, so you buy once rather than twice. Visitors who assume it is free and board without one are the most common fare-inspection case at this airport. From the station, the S11 reaches Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof in twelve minutes for about €3.40, three times an hour, with the ticket valid ninety minutes. A taxi to the centre runs around €20, which for a group is genuinely competitive with four separate train fares. What makes DUS worth understanding is what lies beyond Düsseldorf. Cologne is twenty-five to forty minutes by direct ICE or regional train from the airport's own station, Duisburg fifteen, Essen twenty-five, Dortmund forty. This is one airport serving a conurbation of ten million people, and for a great many arrivals the city on the sign is not the destination.