Hamburger Hochbahn AG (HHA), founded in 1911, operates the underground system and large parts of the bus system in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, Germany. HochbahnHamburg2

History

The HHA was founded by Siemens & Halske and

AEG Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, AEG ...

as a consortium on 27 May 1911. The first chairman was

Albert Ballin Albert Ballin (15 August 1857 – 9 November 1918) was a German shipping magnate. He was the general director of the Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG) or Hamburg-America Line, which for a time was the world's largest s ...

. From 1919 until 1978, the HHA operated a large

tram network A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

, and from 5 December 1921 the HHA also operated the first

motor bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

es in Hamburg. After the acquisition of the ''Straßen-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'' (SEG) in 1919 and the ''Hamburg-Altonaer-Centralbahngesellschaft AG'' in 1923, the HHA had a rolling stock of 865 power cars and 930 trailers by 1928. The length of tracks was 217.33 km. In 1970 the length of the lines were only 82.7 km, in 1978 they were 89.5 km with 80 stations. In 1965, HHA was one of the founding members of the

Hamburger Verkehrsverbund The Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (HVV) ( en, "Hamburg Transport Association") is a transport association coordinating public transport in and around Hamburg, Germany. Its main objectives are to provide a unified fare system, requiring only a single ...

(HVV).

Operations

HHA operates about 111 bus routes and four underground lines. In spite of the "U" for "underground", large portions, especially outside the inner city, run on the surface. Some parts of the underground, notably along the banks of River

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...

in the city centre, are elevated (hence the name "Hochbahn", "elevated railway"). HHA is the second-largest public transport operator in Germany and the major partner in the ''Hamburger Verkehrsverbund''.

Subsidiaries

BeNEX GmbH is the holding company for public transport corporations outside of Hamburg. BeNex owns railway and bus companies. In August 2007, the UK listed investment firm

International Public Partnerships International Public Partnerships is a large British publicly listed investment company dedicated to infrastructure investments. Established in 2006 as Babcock & Brown Public Partnerships, the company adopted its present name on 25 June 2009. It ...

Limited (then known as Babcock & Brown Public Partnerships) acquired 49% of BeNEX.Babcock & Brown steigt bei BeNEX ein
BeNEX press release (August 15, 2007) Retrieved on June 10, 2008 Through BeNEX the Hamburger Hochbahn owns 25.1% of the

Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft mbH is a German non-entirely-state-owned railway company based in Uelzen, Lower Saxony since December 2005. The company's activities focus exclusively on passenger transport, operating services from Hamburg to Brem ...

, a company operating commuter trains in northern Germany.

Nordbahn Eisenbahngesellschaft The NBE Nordbahn Eisenbahngesellschaft mbh & Co. KG (''NBE Nordbahn Railway Company'') is a German non-state-owned railway company based in Hamburg since December 2002. It is a subsidiary company of BeNEX and AKN Eisenbahn. The company is exclus ...

, with

Neumünster Neumünster () is a city in the middle of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. With more than 79,000 registered inhabitants, it is the fourth-largest municipality in Schleswig-Holstein (behind Kiel, Lübeck and Flensburg). History The city was fi ...

Bad Segeberg Bad Segeberg (; Low German: Sebarg) is a German town of 16,000 inhabitants, located in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, capital of the district (Kreis) Segeberg. It is situated approximately northeast of Hamburg, and west of Lübeck. It is famo ...

Bad Oldesloe Bad Oldesloe () is a town located in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is the capital of the district of Stormarn. The area has been inhabited since Mesolithic times. The flint tools found here from that era (6000–4500 BC) a ...

railway in

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...

, is owned in joint venture with the

AKN railway AKN Eisenbahn GmbH operates railway lines, commuter trains and freight trains in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. Its headquarters is in Kaltenkirchen. It is a member of the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (HVV), which organises public transport in an ...

. Among others there are also the East German Railway plc (german: Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn; 50% ownership) and the

Cantus Verkehrsgesellschaft Cantus Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH (which translates roughly as Cantus Transport Company Ltd), based in Kassel is a joint subsidiary of Hessische Landesbahn (HLB) and Hamburger Hochbahn (HHA). The word ''cantus'' refers to a steel rail-wheel tyre ...

, both joint ventures with other corporations.

Notes

* ''The information in this article is based on its German equivalent''

External links

Hamburger Hochbahn AG website

''nordbahn'' railway company website ''Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn'' Eastgerman railroag plc website Tram Travels: Hamburger Hochbahn (HHA)
* {{Authority control Transport in Hamburg Private railway companies of Germany Hamburg U-Bahn Railway companies established in 1911 Companies based in Hamburg Public transport operators of Germany German companies established in 1911