03/01/2023 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/01/2023 10:55
The trade union Verdi is planning a full-day strike for next Friday, 3 March, which will completely shut down the public transport system in Dortmund, as well as the bus and light rail services operated by DSW21. The strike measures will unfortunately have a significant impact on the arrival and departure of tens of thousands of fans who want to watch the Bundesliga match between Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK (kick-off: 20:30 CET). BVB expressly appeal to all visitors to take note of the following information and to take this into account when planning how they will get to and from the stadium for the match.
Due to the Verdi strike, there will be no services operating on DSW21 light rail and bus lines on Friday. This applies from the start of the day's operations (approx. 03:30 CET) to the end of operations (approx. 01:30 CET the following day). The Unishuttle will also be affected. Similarly, the bus lines operated by DSW21 in the neighbouring towns of Castrop-Rauxel (480, 481, 482 and NE 11) and Schwerte (430, 435 and NE 25) will be affected. Deutsche Bahn and S-Bahn trains that are not affected by the strike may be far busier than usual. Please check directly with your local transport network about possible additional rail capacities (e.g. "Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe").
In addition to the big Bundesliga match at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK, the extensive shut-down of public transport within the city of Dortmund will hit other major events in the immediate vicinity hard. A motorcycle trade fair with an estimated 20,000 visitors will be taking place in the Westfalenhallen on Friday, and in the evening, comedian Bülent Ceylan will also be performing in front of approximately 4,000 fans. Two large demonstrations will be taking place in the city from noon until 18:00 CET. The Bundesliga match in Germany's largest stadium is sold out with 81,365 spectators.
In recent days, Borussia Dortmund proactively asked all relevant institutions that are involved outside the SIGNAL IDUNA PARK in the organisation of major events and are responsible for their organisation to share information in order to collect as much information as possible. During three working meetings involving the Federal Police, the State Police, the DSW21, the fire brigade, the public order office and the civil engineering department of the city of Dortmund, among others, the possible course of action for Friday was intensively discussed. The fact is that, unfortunately, the transport situation may require a great deal of patience from visitors and may force the responsible institutions to make very unpopular decisions in the short term.
For this reason, we ask all ticket holders to do the following:
The relevant institutions will do everything in their power outside the stadium to ensure that the five major events on Friday can run as smoothly as possible, as Borussia Dortmund will do within SIGNAL IDUNA PARK.
On Friday, however, we will all be more reliant than ever on every spectator to carefully think through their individual arrival/departure plans in advance and carefully consider the information above.
Thank you in advance for your help.