This month, after much back and forth between the federal and state governments, the Germany ticket coordination council decided on a discounted Germany ticket for students. From the summer semester of 2024, students will have the opportunity to use the Germany-wide local transport ticket for around 60 percent of the standard price, i.e. 29.40 euros.
NRW Transport Minister Oliver Krischer (Greens), as chairman of the state transport ministers’ conference, supported this decision and spoke of a breakthrough in this context on Monday evening. And the student bodies are also satisfied. For them, this decision means one thing above all: maintaining student mobility and an initial success after a long period of uncertainty.
However, Amanda Steinmaus, coordinator of the State ASten meeting of North Rhine-Westphalia, i.e. the meeting of the general student committees of North Rhine-Westphalia, warned of the time challenge of introducing the ticket by the summer semester. In order to make the introduction actually feasible, “the contractual partners would have to come together quickly to design the concrete implementation.” Rudy Bernard Cruz, spokesman for the State ASten Conference of Rhineland-Palatinate, also expressed his concerns publicly: “It’s clear that this can only be a stage victory towards price-stable and socially adequate mobility. In view of the unclear financing of the Deutschlandticket from April 2024, there is no security for the newly achieved nationwide mobility of students.”
The alliance of state student representatives and the nationwide association of free associations of student bodies (fzs) have been campaigning for a nationwide semester ticket for a long time. Because “due to the introduction of the 49-euro Germany ticket, many students are currently without a semester ticket.” This was explained by Madita Lachetta, a member of the federal board of the Juso university groups, the SPD student association. This is because student bodies have canceled their semester ticket contracts in recent months out of fear of lawsuits. In this context, the RBB reported about 50,000 students who currently do not have a semester ticket and therefore no student mobility.
The student bodies are now free to use the new offer or negotiate regional alternative solutions.
The chairman of the board of the German Student Union, Matthias Anbuhl, declared on Tuesday that the “month-long hangover for students” was over. However, he also emphasized that the 29.40 euros per month was the upper price limit. The energy, rent and food price increases placed a heavy burden on the approximately 2.9 million students – especially the 37 percent of them who had to get by on less than 800 euros a month.
Sources: Rbb, with AFP, with DPA
