Transport in Hamburg
A charter in 1189 by Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor granted Hamburg the status of a free imperial city and tax-free access up the Lower Elbe into the North Sea, the right to fish and to cut trees, and the freedom of military service.
[2] In 1241, the two contracts between Hamburg and Lübeck marked the beginning of the Hanseatic League, a trade union in Northern Europe.
[4] On 31 October 1839, the first horse-drawn bus line served a scheduled route from Hamburg to the then Danish Altona.
1911, the first tunnel under a river in continental Europe was finished,[8] and Benzindroschken (gasoline-run vehicles) were allowed on Hamburg's streets.
In 2008, Hamburg had more than 1,700 km (1,100 mi) cycle paths, but—according to the ADFC (German cyclist club)—in a devastated condition, which repairs would cost the city Euro 10 million.
[18] The project StadtRAD Hamburg was started in July 2009 [19] and is today one of the most successful system of its kind in Germany.
[21] The street Colonnaden built by private investors in 1874 was renovated in 1978, it is one of the oldest pedestrian zones in Hamburg.
Major company for the public bus services is the Hamburg Hochbahn AG (HHA) with more than 100 lines and 120,000 km (75,000 mi) driven per day.
Both companies handed over small parts of their services and some lines to subcontractors and subsidiaries such as Jasper or Süderelbe-Bus.
In 2007, there were more than 450 lines departing per week with travel destinations in 27 European countries,[32] e.g. Denmark, Poland, and Russia.
[26] 1,969 vehicles were owned by ten operating companies: AKN Eisenbahn, DB Regio, Eisenbahnen und Verkehrsbetriebe Elbe-Weser (EVB), Erixx GmbH, Hamburg Hochbahn AG (HHA), metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft, nordbahn Eisenbahngesellschaft (NBE), Nord-Ostsee-Bahn (NOB) (part of Veolia Verkehr GmbH), S-Bahn Hamburg plc, and Verkehrsgesellschaft Norderstedt (VGN).
[38] Hamburg is served by long distance and regional trains of Germany's major railway company Deutsche Bahn AG.
To the north, ICE trains connect Hamburg with Aarhus and Copenhagen in Denmark and Kiel in Schleswig-Holstein.
In 2007, the port railway (German: Hafenbahn) had a freight transport volume of 39.7 mill t nearly, including around 1,801,600 container with at least 1,585,600 inbound and outbound coaches.
[42] As of 2008, Hamburg has 8,877 officially named streets, places, and—according to the (Behörde für Stadtentwicklung und Umwelt)—2,500 bridges.
[44] Several motorways (Autobahnen), and federal highways connect Hamburg with other regions or cities.
An important motorway for the north-south connection in Europe is the A 7 — crossing the Elbe river with a tunnel — from the cities of Kiel and Flensburg in the North to Hanover in the south.
[46] In November 2005, according to a census of the Federal Office for freight traffic (Bundesamt für Güterverkehr), in Hamburg were 926 commercial road haulage companies registered, with 19,985 vehicles (lorries, semitrailer tractors, truck trailers, semitrailers), and a cargo capacity of 188,724 t (185,743 long tons; 208,033 short tons), and 15,623 employees.
[47] The port of Hamburg is situated in a distance of 110 kilometres from the mouth of the Elbe river, off the North Sea.
