© dpa
The semester ticket will become cheaper for students: The state of Berlin will add €75 to each student's ticket in the coming summer semester, the Senate Department for Urban Mobility announced on Wednesday.
Students will then have to pay €118 per semester, making the ticket significantly cheaper than before. The responsible state secretaries as well representatives of the general student committees (AStA) of the Berlin universities agreed on this solution on Tuesday evening.
According to the Senate Department for Urban Mobility, the proposal can now be submitted to the student committees and the State of Berlin. Until now, the semester ticket valid in the Berlin ABC fare zone cost €193.80 per semester, an amount that is included in the tuition fees. This corresponds to €32.30 per month. The contractual agreements with the Verkehrsbund Berlin-Brandenburg (VBB) expire at the end of March. According to the agreement reached on Tuesday evening, students would have to calculate with around €19.65 per month in the future.
However, the agreement is to apply only to the 2023 summer semester. The arrangements for the winter semester 2023/2024 are still open. "We welcome the offer for the summer semester and will consider it," said the Asta chairman of the School of Economics and Law, Miguel Góngora, who took part in the talks on Tuesday evening.
Góngora was pleased that the ticket was still valid for the ABC fare zone and that bicycle transport was included - unlike the 9-euro social ticket. Góngora also spoke out in favor of a lower-priced semester ticket after the summer semester.
Senator Bettina Jarasch said, "With the stable price and the subsidy, we are making it possible for the large group of students in Berlin to continue to travel cheaply and climate-friendly in the ABC fare zone in the coming semester." Senator Ulrike Gote called the agreement a good solution for Berlin's students in the current situation in the midst of multiple crises and between changing fare systems.