# Models

## Cost neutrality of the ticket

A student semesterticket must ensure that the income of the VGN does not decrease. The shareholders of the VGN - a lot of different local transportation services - can not finance additional permanent costs for a student semesterticket. This is why we need a self-supporting and lasting model for the ticket.

# Models

## Solidary model

The most effective way to mark down prices for a student semesterticket is to split to total amount of collegiate public transportation costs between all students:

We just take the whole amount of money and divide it by the number of students.

This would result in a price of 180-190€ per student and semester for the VGN-area.

## Social acceptability

A student ticket, that is funded by all students, has to be socially acceptable. This means it can not be too expensive. The most well-known legal interpretation of social acceptability of a solidarity-based student semesterticket is: The costs can not exceed 1.62% of the BAföG maximum per semester. That is approximately:

$670\text{ Euro}\times 6\text{ months}\times 1,62\% = 65,04\text{ Euro}$

A student semesterticket for the entire VGN-area would cost a lot more than 65€. Therefore it is not possible to implement solidary ticket alone.This is why a so-called split model was introduced.

## Split model

shared costs, shared benefits

With the the solidary split ticket all students can use the VGN with some restrictions (only Monday to Friday from 7pm to 6am, on the weekend and on public holidays all day). If you want to use the VGN without restrictions (24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 6 months) you can buy the supplement ticket.
This form of financing a student semesterticket allows a socially acceptable solidary fee and at the same time ensures that the student semesterticket as a whole has a lower price than the Semesterwertmarken, which can be bought at the moment.