The Student Parliament of the HTW Berlin regrets to note that it will not be possible to conclude a contract for the semester ticket from winter semester 23/24.
The semester ticket is suspended. Due to the lack of a new offer from the VBB that takes the current developments in the ticket structure into account, negotiations have failed. The outdated offer will not be put to a vote because the legality of the ticket price is already questionable. The services of the semester ticket (Berlin ABC + bicycle transport for the equivalent of €32.30 per month) are no longer proportionate since the introduction of the €49 Germany ticket, especially given that a semester ticket is a compulsory ticket for all students and cannot be canceled.
This was not only the result of a study commissioned by the LAT NRW, the AStA had also dealt with the topic in detail beforehand and decided against concluding a new contract. We do not consider it justifiable to conclude a contract under these conditions. Since November, the AStA’s representative, together with the State Student Council Conference, has been pointing out in negotiations that the semester ticket lacks legitimacy. We agree with the statement by the LAK Berlin. The emergency solution last November initially saved the semester ticket, but was only granted for the current semester. Accordingly, a solution for the winter semester should have been worked out. This has not happened. The Berlin Student Council had made appropriate offers.
“Students are one of the groups most affected by poverty,” explains Cong Anh Orlemann, AStA representative and member of the JuSo university group. “For example, students who are entitled to housing benefit cannot understand why they have to forego a much cheaper €9 social ticket in favor of an expensive semester ticket. Even employees only pay a good €34 for the job ticket and can travel throughout Germany. But students are supposed to pay almost the same amount just for Berlin – that is simply unfair.”
The AStA cannot understand why there is still no Germany ticket for students with an adjusted price and why the VBB did not want to make an appropriate regional offer.
Contrary to the information provided by the VBB, at least the AStA of the HTW has not received a new offer. The AStA does not see the SenUMVK’s suggestion that the student bodies should simply conclude a contract at the old price because there would be no new offer as an offer but as a paternalistic imposition that seriously questions the other party’s ability to negotiate.
“Our job is to negotiate low-cost tickets and not to accept and sign every decision made by the VBB Supervisory Board,” commented Stefanie Döring, Advisor for University Policy. “Nothing has changed in the situation that new and good tickets threaten the legitimacy of the semester ticket as a whole; it has been known for months. It is a shame that those responsible at VBB and SenUMVK have not worked out a solution. The elimination of the semester ticket is a failure that has been announced.”
The fact that the VBB has not adjusted its offer for the semester ticket price for two years calls into question its serious interest in negotiations. We would also have expected more commitment from a formerly green SenUMVK for 200,000 public transport users.
What we now need is a quick political solution for the coming winter semester. On the one hand, this includes extending the eligibility for the social ticket to all BAföG recipients and the introduction of a freely available, discounted regional student ticket and national Germany ticket.