Mobil durchs Münsterland | Cycling | Bus and train | Car traffic
On the road in Münsterland by bike and train
© Münsterland e.V./Christoph Steinweg
By bus, train, bike and car
Mobile through the Münsterland
Cycling in Münsterland - here on the promenade in Münster
© Münsterland e.V./Michael Lemmerhirt
By bus, train, bike and car
Mobile through the Münsterland

Mobile through the Münsterland

Let's go through the region, which offers all the possibilities of a future-oriented location: It is centrally located in Europe, close to the border with the Netherlands and optimally connected. Whether by bus, train, car, bike or on foot - use the mobility mix and go on a discovery tour!

Münsterland cycling region

Mobile through Münsterland? That's most fun by bike. Because the region not only has so much to offer leisure cyclists on its approximately 4,500 kilometres of cycle paths. Those who like to commute to work by leeze are also in the right place here. There is a good network of cycle paths, good signposting, mostly flat terrain and the cycle route network is constantly being expanded. That's why more than 20 percent of commuters in Münsterland now use bicycles - almost three times as many as the NRW average.

By bus and train through Münsterland

If you want to relax during your journey and value your ecological footprint, it's best to make use of the wide range of bus and train services. There are good rail connections in all directions from the Münsterland region and especially from the Münster regional centre: By rail, you can reach Osnabrück, Bielefeld, Hamm, Dortmund, Recklinghausen and Enschede in the Netherlands with various direct connections. There are also express buses that connect the Münster regional centre with the surrounding area. And offers such as the Westfalentarif, job tickets and trainee tickets make public transport in the region particularly attractive. In rural areas, community buses also connect smaller municipalities with their neighbours.

Would you like to know which town is connected to the rail network and how? Then take a look at the individual local portraits.

And you can find all timetables, route maps and ticket sales points on the homepage Bus & Bahn im Münsterland.

On the road with the car

Especially in rural areas, the car is the means of choice for Münsterlanders. And there is a reason for that. There are usually not only sufficient and free parking spaces. The motorway connections in Münsterland are also impressive. The A 1, A 31 and A 43 motorways run north-south, the A 30 and A 2 complete the picture as east-west tangents. On average, about 70 per cent of commuters in the region use a car for their daily journey to work.

By the way, you don't necessarily need your own car for this. The region's Car-Sharing service is also growing steadily. In Münster and the Münsterland region, you can rent a car through Stadtteilauto or SHARE NOW. In Ahaus and the surrounding area, for example, you can use stattVerbrenner. In Everswinkel, Sendenhorst, Drensteinfurt and other places you will find what you are looking for at teilautos.

Münster/Osnabrück Airport (FMO)

Münster/Osnabrück Airport (FMO) in Greven is of great regional importance as a travel and business airport. From there, you can not only fly to cities like Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt. It also serves many international destinations, for example Mallorca, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Turkey. Climate protection is also important to FMO: it has set itself the goal of being climate-neutral by 2030. Electricity is already being drawn exclusively from renewable sources. FMO is also planning a climate forest with up to 15,000 trees to compensate for CO2 emissions.

But other airports are also within driving distance: The international airport in Düsseldorf is easy to reach by car or train, and the Cologne/Bonn and Dortmund airports are also around two hours away, depending on your starting point.

Did you know that...?
  • Münster not only has a car wash for bicycles, but also a traffic light running board for cyclists?
  • not only the city of Münster can score with a modern bike station , but also the city of Gronau? There, the mobile station has lockable bicycle boxes, charging stations for pedelec riders and park-ride parking spaces.
  • there is an emission-free scooter sharing system in Münster thanks to trettys ?
  • we have a cross-border citizens' bus in Ahaus-Alstätte that goes as far as Haaksbergen in the Netherlands?
  • the motorway connections in Münsterland are so good that we are home to the "Logistics Location of the Year in NRW"? That's Rheine in the district of Steinfurt. Because the city is connected to the A30 with two junctions; at the nearby Schüttorf junction in the west the A30 meets the A31, and in the east the A30 is connected to the A1 via the Lotte/Osnabrück junction.
  • the Münsterland region has an experimental space for mobility in rural areas with the kommit Bürgerlabor Mobiles Münsterland project in the Coesfeld district? The aim is to encourage people to switch from car to local transport.
  • the LOOP project in Münster provides local transport on demand and other Münsterland municipalities such as Senden and Gronau are also developing similar concepts?
  • the MünsterlandExpress X90 serves the Olfen-Lüdinghausen-Senden-Münster axis as an express bus and is faster than regular express bus lines thanks to fewer stops and an optimal route?

Cycle routes

In order to continue to be mobile in Münsterland as quickly as possible in the future, but in a climate-friendly way, there are various projects. On the one hand, various cycle routes are being built in the region to create fast and safe cycle connections between cities and communities. In Münster, for example, 13 routes will lead in a star shape from the city centre to the surrounding area, with the Promenade serving as a distribution ring. The district of Warendorf wants to follow this up and connect other towns in the district with cycle routes.

In the district of Steinfurt, 62 kilometres of such fast and safe connections are currently being built under the project name "Triangle". And the districts of Coesfeld and Borken are planning the Westmünsterland cycle path, which will run from Isselburg on the Dutch border to Coesfeld in the middle of the western Münsterland.

Sharing models

You only need a car now and then or just want to book a bike spontaneously for the weekend? That is also possible in Münsterland. There are already car-sharing services such as those offered by Stadtteilauto, SHARE NOW, teilautos or stattVerbrenner. But you can also easily rent a bicycle in Münsterland with the Rent your MünsterlandRad offer. And the sharing offer in Münsterland is constantly being expanded, with new providers being added all the time.

On-demand services, mobility stations, intelligent traffic control

Local transport on demand? This is already possible in Münster with the LOOP service, and there are also concrete plans for 2021 in Gronau and Senden. In the future, on-demand services are to be created throughout the region that can encourage people to switch from their cars to local transport.

In addition, mobility stations are to be created at various locations in the region: There you will be able to use different means of transport, access offers such as car-sharing or e-bike rental, stock up on everyday necessities and book and pay for them easily with an app.

The joint project kommit Bürgerlabor Mobiles Münsterland, among others, is working intensively to provide Münsterland with user-friendly, multimodal mobility beyond motorised individual transport in the future.

Questions? Your contact person

Ute Schmidt-Vöcks
© Münsterland e.V./Anja Tiwisina

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