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By now, a lot of work has been invested in the introduction of a semester ticket. The last time we addressed you with the concrete costs as well as the covered offers of the public transport was in December 2022.
The ticket should cost 177 € per semester, which would increase the semester fee to 271 €.
The ticket would be valid in the entire public transport system of the VMS area – that covers the districts of Mittelsachsen, Zwickau and Erzgebirgskreis including the independent city of Chemnitz. The public transport of other regions of Saxony would NOT be covered (e.g. buses and trams in Dresden or Leipzig).
Furthermore, the ticket would be valid on local trains throughout Saxony (SPNV – Schienenpersonennahverkehr).
After these general conditions were mentioned to us, we made a legal examination to what extent and under which conditions we as the student council (StuRa) are allowed to decide about the introduction of a semester ticket. Since the semester fee, which is increased by the semester ticket, must be paid by all students without exception, the ticket must also benefit the far overwhelming majority of students. “Far overwhelming majority” is not specifically defined, however, in order to distinguish it from the overwhelming majority, a percentage of approximately 70 % to 80 % of the students can be assumed here. These students would have to benefit from the semester ticket in order for us as the StuRa to be authorized to introduce such a ticket. We know that the ticket is a very controversial topic among the students and therefore an approval rate of the mentioned 70 % to 80 % seems difficult to achieve. It should also be noted that the required approval rate is an absolute one – it refers to all students and not only to those who would participate in a possible survey.
As an example, if 60 % of students were to participate in a survey on the desire for a semester ticket and the survey resulted in an approval rate of 90 %, the resulting overall approval rate among all students would be only 54 %. This would be only a slim majority and far from a far overwhelming majority.
Achieving a far overwhelming approval of the semester ticket among all students seems highly unrealistic to us, which is why we as the StuRa have decided to no longer pursue the project.
The introduction of the Deutschlandticket next month (May 2023), with a far greater area of validity than the semester ticket, a price of 49 € per month (the semester ticket would cost 29.50 € per month), and the possibility of deciding individually and every month whether to buy the ticket, puts further obstacles in the way of the proportionality of a general semester ticket.
Your Department University Politics