Cologne, Bonn and the surrounding area have a well developed public transportation network with regional and commuter trains, light rail, trams and buses.
No matter where you travel, you can use one ticket because the 30 or so public operators in the region are all part of the Verkehrsverbundes Rhein-Sieg (VRS) fare network.
The VRS tariff network covers 5,000 sq km and includes Cologne, Bonn, Leverkusen and Monheim as well as the counties of Rhein-Erft-Kreis, Rhein-Sieg-Kreis, Rheinisch-Bergischer-Kreis, Oberbergischer Kreis und Kreis Euskirchen.
On an average day more than 1.4 million passengers are carried by companies that are part of the VRS.
Annually over 500 million passengers use the network.
Cologne´s public transport company, called the Kölner Verkehrs-Betriebe (KVB), carries half of these passengers on its 380 trams and 300 buses.
More than 100,000 workers commute into Cologne every day from outlying areas.
The North-South light-rail route, which is currently under construction, will give the southern part of Cologne a quick and more convenient connection with the city center when it is completed.
Cologne´s five S-Bahn light-rail routes (also called S-Bahn Rhein-Sieg) are operated by DB Regio, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, Germany´s state-owned railway company.
In Bonn and the surrounding area, the public transport operator is called SWB Bus & Bahn.
The company has 250 buses running on over 44 routes as well as 100 light-rail or trams.
The tram lines 16 and 18 offer good connection between Cologne and Bonn.
No matter where you get on, ticket prices are the same, thanks to the VRS´s unified fare system.
For example, a short-trip ticket (for up to 4 stops) costs € 1.60; a single journey CityTicket in Cologne or Bonn costs € 2.40. Detailed info is available at www.vrsinfo.de