If you have a semester ticket, you should only pay the difference to get the new Germany ticket, which is valid nationwide – the federal states agree on this. There is still no solution for children, bicycles and dogs.
With the new 49-euro ticket for local public transport, there should now be a short-term solution for students. They will be offered an “upgrade” temporarily, announced the spokesman for the state transport ministers, Oliver Krischer (Greens) from North Rhine-Westphalia. This means that you should only have to pay the difference between the cost of your semester ticket and the 49 euros per month for the new Germany ticket, so that you can then also use all buses and trains nationwide. This transitional rule should take effect on May 1st, when the Germany ticket starts.
Students have been demanding a solution for themselves for weeks – this was also the subject of the two-day conference of transport ministers in Aachen. However, the Hessian minister Tarek Al-Wazir then said that the technical details of this “upgrade solution” would have to be clarified individually between the transport associations and the students at the respective university locations by May 1st. Because they are usually the contractual partners of the semester tickets offered in many places.
The special problem for students is that in many cases they are forced to buy a semester ticket even if they shouldn’t use it – a so-called solidarity model. The transport ministers also want to stick to this in principle. At the same time, they don’t want students to have to buy a Germany ticket for an additional 49 euros in order to be able to travel nationwide. Some states, such as Bavaria, are also planning special, cheaper offers for pupils, students or trainees. In order to integrate the semester tickets permanently and uniformly throughout Germany into the 49-euro ticket, a work process has been agreed, said Krischer. There are still legal questions to be answered here.
The question of the so-called take-along regulations for the 49-euro ticket is still unresolved: in some transport associations, the previous monthly tickets allow children, bicycles or dogs to travel free of charge. NRW Minister Krischer endeavored to standardize this nationwide for the 49-euro ticket. However, the transport ministers could not agree on this.