As of 2010, the HVV provides rail, bus and ferry transportation for an area of 8,616 square kilometres with approximately 3.6 million inhabitants in the states of Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony.

In the city centre, stops are served without a specific schedule every two or three minutes and since December 2005, extra long double-articulated buses have been used.

The first results that the new organisation delivered came on 1 January 1967 with a unified fare structure, pooling of receipts and coordinated systemwide timetables across all modes of transport.

[3] The public transport authorities (PTAs) are also the tendering organisations and owners of the limited liability company Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (GmbH).

The HVV offers travel passes ('ProfiCard'), and semester tickets for the students of all major universities, both heavily discounted.