With its city buses and rails, the "ÜSTRA Hannoversche Verkehrsbetriebe Aktiengesellschaft" is among the leading German local public transportation companies. With about 174 million passengers per year, the ÜSTRA is the largest service provider for local public transport in Lower Saxony.
The ÜSTRA is a traditional company. For 125 years it is inseparably intertwined with the City of Hanover. In 1892 it was founded under the name of "Straßenbahn Hannover AG". In 1921 it was renamed in „Überlandwerke und Straßenbahn“ - in short "ÜSTRA". In 1970 the previously privately owned transport company was municipalised and is since that time publicly owned.
With more than 39 million vehicle kilometres per year (rail and bus) and more than 2.000 employees, the ÜSTRA transports the Hanover people in the city centre during the day every 10 minutes. Within the Transport Association of Greater Hanover (GVH) it cooperates with the transport companies "RegioBus Hannover GmbH", "DB Regio AG", "metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft mbH", "erixx GmbH" and "WestfalenBahn GmbH". The "Region Hannover" - authority for local transport - coordinates a balanced transport network and an uniform pricing system within the GVH.
Due to its modern railways the ÜSTRA provides environmentally friendly mobility. They are a real climate sensation: The CO2 emissions of the railways have been reduced to 0 gram gram/passenger-Kilometers since 2015. The ÜSTRA bus fleet also conserves the environment: With the hybrid buses and 3 electric buses purchased in the last years, the ÜSTRA focuses specifically on innovation and environmental friendliness and pursues in that way the climate protection further.
