knowledge Overview
The Hamburger Hochbahn AG (HHA) was founded on 27 May 1911 as a consortium of Siemens & Halske and AEG and is today 100 % owned by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. It is the largest local transport company in Hamburg and a core partner in the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (hvv), of which it was a founding member in 1965. The name derives from the construction of elevated railway sections in the inner city; large parts of the network run above ground – despite the "U" for Untergrund (underground).
Operations
The Hochbahn operates:
- The four U-Bahn lines U1, U2, U3 and U4 of the Hamburg U-Bahn with 93 stations and around 250 million passengers annually.
- An extensive bus network with over 110 bus lines and around 1,000 buses, including the expansion of the electric bus fleet and projects on autonomous driving.
- In planning: the new, fully automatic line U5 as well as the automation of the existing network (project U-Bahn100).
From 1919 to 1978, the Hochbahn also operated the Hamburg tram network.
History
The Hamburger Hochbahn AG was founded on 27 May 1911 by Siemens & Halske and AEG as a consortium; the first chairman of the board was Albert Ballin. In 1918/1919 the company was reorganised as a mixed-economy enterprise and took over at the end of 1918, with the Straßen-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (SEG), the largest Hamburg tram operator; from 5 December 1921, the HOCHBAHN also operated Hamburg's first motor buses. Since 1965 it has been a founding member of the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (hvv) and is wholly owned by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg via the HGV Hamburger Gesellschaft für Vermögens- und Beteiligungsmanagement mbH.