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A network of around 2,200 kilometers of expressways links every important town or city in NRW directly and quickly to the European expressway system. Almost every place of importance in the state has its own expressway entrance and exit. There are also around 4,800 km of federal highways, 9,700 km of local district roads and 12,800 km of country roads in North Rhine-Westphalia.
NRW has the densest railway network in Germany. Track length amounts up to 6,500 km. NRW is an important hub in the high-speed rail network. Prime examples are the Thalys connections to Brussels and Paris, as well as ICE high-speed line from Cologne via Frankfurt/Main to Basel. The central station in Cologne is one of Europe's busiest railway junctions (280,000 travelers and 1,230 trains every day). Deutsche Bahn AG as well as numerous regional rail services and tram and light rail systems provide local transport rail services on a daily basis.
NRW lies at the intersection of major European waterways and, although the state has no coastline, connections to important European seaports are ensured. 226 kilometers of the Rhine, one of the world’s most busiest waterways, flow through NRW. NRW is by far the largest location for inland ports in Germany. 120 ports (23 public and 97 private) handle around 125 million tons of goods by ship each year -surpassing the cargo volume handled at the overseas port of Hamburg. The Duisburg freight hub is the world's largest inland port, and Europe’s largest overseas harbor. Including the private commercial ports, more than 100 million tons of goods are handled at Duisburg per year.
NRW has a total of 720 kilometers of waterways providing links via the Rhine or the European canal system to the North Sea (Rotterdam), the Baltic, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
NRW's airports offer more than 400 direct flight connections to destinations all over the world. The two major international airports – Düsseldorf International and Cologne Bonn Airport – as well as additional airports with European connections in Dortmund, Münster/Osnabrück, Paderborn/Lippstadt and Weeze/Lower Rhine connect the state to all major German domestic destinations as well as to cities and holiday regions all over the world.
The Düsseldorf International Airport, for example, which is the third-largest passenger airport in Germany after Frankfurt am Main and Munich, provides flights to more than 180 destinations worldwide. More than 100 destinations worldwide are served from Cologne Bonn Airport. The airport is Germany's third-largest cargo center with a volume of air cargo in 2010 totaled 656,000 tons.
High-speed trains can be used to reach the European hub at Frankfurt airport in less than one hour. Also of interest to the Aachen Technology Region is the proximity of the Maastricht Aachen Airport in the Netherlands.
All European cities and capitals can be reached by air within just three hours:
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