One passenger pays between £18.05 and £18.65, every fee included, depending on the operator and the way you travel. Services cover 176 km and are run by 2 operators across 2 modes.
What one seat costs
The spread between the cheapest and dearest typical fare on this corridor, across 0 operators and 2 ways of making the journey. The operator sets the price on the day.
Typical fares · Priced for 27 October 2026
£18.05 to £18.65
- 180%Moves across the booking window
180%12Go issues the ticket, and you book it here on Orlero.
Buying this journey
Pick a departure for Essen to Dortmund and pay on tickets.orlero.com, our booking site.
The price is the one 12Go sets, with every fee shown before you pay.
12Go issues the ticket, and you book it here on Orlero.
Buying this journey
Pick a departure for Essen to Dortmund and pay on tickets.orlero.com, our booking site.
The price is the one 12Go sets, with every fee shown before you pay.
Fares by date
What this journey usually costs, by departure date. It shows which days run dearer.
Typical fares
- about £47.88Thu8
- about £33.75Fri9
- about £37.98Sat10
- about £26.21Sun11
- about £22.44Mon12
- about £23.38Tue13
- about £23.24Wed14
- about £22.91Thu15
- about £21.35Fri16
- about £22.44Sat17
- about £22.91Sun18
- about £18.66Mon19
- about £21.01Tue20
- about £20.55Wed21
- about £21.35Thu22
- about £21.96Fri23
- about £21.02Sat24
- about £19.13Sun25
- about £18.65Mon26
- about £18.05Tue27
- about £18.65Wed28
Based on what this route has cost recently. The live fare is confirmed when you book.
The train gets you into Dortmund. These two partners take it from there, and the bed is theirs to book.
A room in Dortmund for the night the train gets in
Sort by distance from Dortmund Hauptbahnhof and you can see which places are ten minutes on foot and which are not.
Search Dortmund on Booking.comOr compare on Expedia
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When to book Essen to Dortmund
The same search run across the whole booking window, so the shape of the curve is visible rather than described.
- £17.1090 days
- £21.0160 days
- £18.6645 days
- £18.6630 days
- £18.6521 days
- £20.5514 days
- £23.247 days
- £37.983 days
- £47.881 days
- Cheapest lead time
- Fares bottom out around 90 days ahead, at £17.10.
- How much it moves
- The gap between the cheapest and dearest lead time is 180 percent. The dearest point is £47.88, 1 days out.
- What that means
- Today sits inside the cheap window, which closes about 90 days before departure. Waiting from here has usually cost money on this corridor rather than saved it.
Book now Fares on this route are lowest around 90 days ahead. You are inside that window.
This corridor, specifically
Facts that apply to Essen to Dortmund and to no other route on the site.
Clocks
Both ends keep the same time, so the arrival is the departure plus the journey.
The shape of it
176 km
32 km as the crow flies, 450% further by the route services take. The bearing runs east.
Who lives at each end
593,085 → 588,462
Population at the departure city and at the arrival city, which is usually what decides how often anything runs.
The route
What the journey looks like
Direct or connecting, how far the route really runs, and what happens when a connection is missed.
- Direct or connecting
- 0% of the services we sell on this corridor run through without a change. The remaining 100% involve one connection.
- How far it really runs
- The route covers 176 km against 32 km in a straight line, a detour of 450 percent. Track and road geometry account for the difference.
- Where the change is
- Connections are made at Münster, Bielefeld, Köln, Bonn. The gap between arriving and leaving is 62 minutes, of which about 5 is walking.
- If the connection is missed
- The tightest connection we sell here has a 15 percent chance of not being made on the timetable alone. Part of this journey is a self transfer between separate tickets, so leave more time than the minimum and expect to check in again.
The fare from DTM into Dortmund is set by whoever drives it.
A car waiting when you land in Dortmund
Settled in advance, so the ride into Dortmund costs what it said it would rather than what the rank says.
Book a transfer from DTM with Welcome PickupsOr check Daytrip
Partner links. We earn a commission on a booking, and the fare is the same as going direct.
Who runs this route
The train gets in hours before any room is ready. Holding a bag is not what we sell.
Left luggage near Dortmund Hauptbahnhof
Most of the points near Dortmund Hauptbahnhof open before the first train and shut after the last one.
Check Dortmund on StasherOr try Bounce
Partner links. We earn a commission on a booking, and the price is the same as going direct.
Questions about Essen to Dortmund
The questions people actually ask about this journey, answered from the same prices and times the page above is built on rather than written once and left to go stale.
How long does it take to get from Essen to Dortmund?
Essen to Dortmund covers 176 km. Each operator's own departure and arrival times for the date you pick are in the search at the top of this page, beside the total price.
How much does it cost to travel from Essen to Dortmund?
The cheapest fare from Essen to Dortmund is £18.05, as of 7 October 2026. A typical fare across the next three weeks is £23.38. Both figures are the total for one passenger, including taxes, supplier fees and our service fee, so nothing is added at checkout.
What is the cheapest way to get from Essen to Dortmund?
The cheapest way from Essen to Dortmund is by coach, at £18.05 for one passenger on 27 October 2026. The comparison table on this page shows what each mode costs side by side.
When should I book Essen to Dortmund?
Fares from Essen to Dortmund bottom out around 90 days before departure, at £17.10. Across the whole booking window the gap between the cheapest and the dearest lead time is 180 percent, measured on 7 October 2026. Booking inside the last week has consistently cost more on this corridor.
Which day of the week is cheapest for Essen to Dortmund?
Monday is the cheapest day to depart from Essen to Dortmund, at £18.66. That is the median of 21 priced departure days across the next three weeks, as of 7 October 2026. Shifting a departure by one day is usually worth more than shifting the booking by one week.
Which month is cheapest for Essen to Dortmund?
March is the cheapest of the next 6 months to travel from Essen to Dortmund, at £17.10 for one passenger. Each month is priced on its fifteenth, so the comparison is like for like rather than a mix of weekends and midweek departures.
Who runs services from Essen to Dortmund?
2 operators sell services from Essen to Dortmund across 2 modes: BlaBlaCar, DB Fernverkehr. Journey times, fares and fare conditions differ between them, and the operator table on this page compares all of them on speed, flexibility and what is provided on board.
Is there a direct service from Essen to Dortmund?
0 percent of the services we sell from Essen to Dortmund are direct. The rest connect at Münster, Bielefeld, Köln, Bonn, with about 62 minutes between the two services. Both legs are sold on one booking, so a missed connection is rebooked at no charge.
How much CO2 does the journey from Essen to Dortmund produce?
Travelling from Essen to Dortmund by train produces about 5.6 kg of CO2 per passenger, the lowest of any mode on this corridor. The same journey by Coach produces about 6.6 kg, roughly 1 times as much for one passenger.
Which station or terminal do services from Essen to Dortmund use?
Services from Essen to Dortmund by train leave from Essen Hauptbahnhof and arrive at Dortmund Hbf. Allow about 44m in total for reaching the departure terminal and leaving the arrival one, which is already included in every door to door time on this page.
Can I change or refund a ticket from Essen to Dortmund?
2 of the 2 operators we sell from Essen to Dortmund allow a change or a refund. A change on a changeable fare costs £4.28. The operator table on this page names which is which, and the condition is shown again before you pay.
Where these numbers come from
Places, coordinates, operators, which operator serves which pair, and every distance on this page are real and come from open data. Where a corridor has a filed timetable the departure times are real too, and ferry fares are the prices the operators publish themselves.
Observed service A carrier record names this operator on this pair, carried through unchanged.
Prices come from the supplier wherever we hold a live quote. Elsewhere we show an indicative price built from the real distance, the real operator and a fare curve over lead time, day of the week and season. Those are labelled Estimated fare and cannot be booked.
Defined in full at Door to door, Fares, The booking window, Carbon, Distances
The train is the simple part. What you do once you are in Dortmund is somebody else's catalogue.
Day trips out of Dortmund and across Germany
Day trips that leave Dortmund in the morning and cover a good part of Germany by evening.
See Dortmund on GetYourGuideOr browse Viator
Partner links. We earn a commission on a booking, and it never changes the price.
The two ends, compared
Essen reaches 33 places in 10 countries on services we hold, over distances from 32 to 1,125 km. Dortmund reaches 46 places in 15 countries, from 32 to 2,010 km.
Other ways to make this journey
Leaving Essen
- 33Places you can leave for
- 10Countries
- 17Operators
10
17Arriving in Dortmund
Leaving Dortmund
- 46Places you can leave for
- 15Countries
- 27Operators