Semesterticket: What happens after the 9€ ticket?

The Semesterticket working group, made up of student representatives from FAU, THN, EvHN and HfM Nuremberg, vehemently campaigned last year for students to be integrated into the 365€ ticket for students and trainees from the winter semester 2022/23. Together, over 5,000 signatures were collected for citizens' petitions in Nuremberg and Erlangen. In Erlangen, the vote of the city council will take place on Tuesday 20.09. from about 18h in the council chamber of the city hall (meeting point: 17:40 in front of the city hall). In Nuremberg, about 2,000 signatures are still needed before the petition can be handed over.
For a long time, the possibility seemed good that, at least from the summer semester 2023, students would also be able to get the 365€ ticket on the VGN and MVV (Munich). There were numerous promises from high-ranking politicians, especially from the CSU and the Bavarian CSU Ministry of Transport, that the Free State of Bavaria would also subsidise this with 2/3. In mid-July, our Minister-President Markus Söder personally rescinded this long promise (https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchen-studierende-studenten-365-euro-ticket-bayern-1.5623574), by the way, a few days after he had demanded a €365 ticket from the German government. In Munich, there was an open letter to the bavarian state government (https://www.semesterticket-muenchen.de/pm-offener-brief-365e-ticket/). Unfortunately, the introduction of a €365 ticket for students does not seem to be on the cards at the moment - but we will make sure that the Freie Wähler and the CSU remember their own coalition agreement in next year's state election campaign.

Long before the €9 ticket was even discussed, the student representatives and the Studierendenwerk negotiated with the VGN about the semester ticket for the winter semester 2022/23. In several rounds of negotiations, we were able to achieve some improvements and successes:

• The basic ticket will be valid from 6 p.m. from the winter semester 2022/23 (instead of 7 p.m. as before)
• From the winter semester 2022/23, the basic ticket will be valid from 5 p.m. on Fridays (instead of 7 p.m. as before)
• Those on a semester abroad or on leave of absence can be exempted from the solidarity fee - the exact implementation depends on the university in question
• The contract contains a special right of termination if a €365 ticket comes through state funding
• Only the tariff increase of 2022 will be implemented (solid 5%) and the planned tariff increase for 2023 will not be taken into account
• The increase will be implemented gradually and not all at once, the first part in the winter semester, the second part in the summer semester of 2023

The improvements reflect very well the student opinion that emerged from the survey conducted in March/April. The most popular suggestions were "daily from 18h" and "Fridays from 17h".

The full contract can be found here (in german only): https://www.werkswelt.de/data/uploads/semesterticket/setiv2022.pdf

Originally, the basic ticket should have been increased from 75€ to 79€ and the additional ticket from 207€ to 218€. After extensive consultations in the student representatives, we decided that due to the enormous burden, the solidarity contribution should increase less and the additional contribution more. Thus, there will be the following rates - unless we get a 365€ ticket or a 9€ successor ticket after all:

• Winter semester 22/23: 76€ for the basic ticket and 220€ for the additional ticket
• Summer semester 23: 77€ for the basic ticket and 222€ for the additional ticket

We will continue to campaign for cheaper semester tickets and once again call on the Bavarian state government to stop blocking this. The Minister of the Interior, Joachim Herrmann, Erlangen's direct representative in the Bavarian state parliament, had also promised us his support in a personal conversation, but we are still waiting for action.

In order to master this feat of strength, we need all the support we can get. If you have a few hours a week, please contact us at hauptorga@semesterticket.org.