++++ IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR SEMESTER TICKET ++++
Dear Student,
we have good and bad news for you:
First the bad news:
Your semester ticket will become more expensive for the coming summer semester!
And now the good news:
We, the student unions of the universities in Berlin and Brandenburg, together with the IGSemTixBB, will do our best to make sure that the semester ticket will not become more expensive. But we also need your help! How you can support us concretely, you can find at the end of the text.
Who is the IGSemTixBBB:
The IGSemTixBBB, the interest group Semesterticket Berlin/Brandenburg, is the union of the composed student bodies and the representatives of the individual universities for the Semesterticket in Berlin and Brandenburg. In summary, we are a committee of students for students.
What we do:
Since the summer semester 2020, we have been in negotiations with the Berlin/Brandenburg Transport Association (VBB) on behalf of our students in Berlin and Brandenburg. In several meetings until the end of August, we presented the students’ concerns and tried to reach a cooperative result with the VBB. The negotiations concerning the price and the extent of the ticket were very difficult, were not continued unilaterally and we always had the feeling that the VBB does not care about the interests and needs of more than 210.000 students, including yours!
This is the only way to explain why the VBB was not willing to meet us students for the summer semester 2020 and the current winter semester 20/21. For example, we had demanded for you that there should be a corona-compliant goodwill regulation for the summer semester 2020. This would have provided financial support to students who did not need or could not use their semester ticket at that time or at the moment due to closed universities.
What we currently demand for you:
For the coming summer semester 2021 we had suggested to the VBB to help students by offering them a reduced ticket (365 Euro per year – 182,50 Euro per semester) and to get the semester ticket. The tariff for this already exists. However, this tariff is denied us students and can only be obtained by apprentices.
Many politicians in the parliaments of Berlin and Brandenburg have already signaled their cross-party support. For example, the Berlin Senator for the Environment, Transportation and Climate Protection signaled her sympathy during a questioning by a member of the Berlin Senate. Unfortunately, we did not receive any expressions of sympathy from the Brandenburg state parliament in a questioning, in which we also had our voice heard, from the State Secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure and State Planning of the State of Brandenburg and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the VBB.
The ultimatum:
A few days ago the VBB gave us an ultimatum. It demands that we decide by 15.11.2020 – that is this Sunday – whether we want to increase the price or against the semester ticket as a whole. This is a blatant pistol to our heads, even though, in our opinion, the negotiations are not yet over. In addition to the price increase as such, we clearly reject this form of putting pressure and demand further partnership-based negotiations at equal level. After all, with 210,000 students, we are a customer group for the VBB that should not be underestimated, and we currently bring in – a safe – 80 million euros per year. If necessary, we demand that the prices of semester tickets in Berlin and Brandenburg be freezed until the end of the winter semester 21/22 – that is, for another year. But for this we need your public support!
What you can do now:
We are many – 210,000 students – and only together can we raise our voice! You can support us with the following points:
- inform yourself about the topic and form an opinion. We have provided information for you at www.linktr.ee/semtix365.
- talk to your fellow students about the topic. The more students are informed about the topic, the more we can achieve. This topic concerns every student!
- follow us on Instagram and Twitter You can find us in the social media under @semtix365 & #semtix365
https://www.instagram.com/semtix365
https://twitter.com/semtix365 - post us your opinion about social media. What do you think about the price increase of the semester ticket?
- You want to do more than “just” support us via social media? You have a blog, you write for a student newspaper, you are artistically talented and/or just want to get involved? Just write us, via our social media channels, how you want to get involved and we will get back to you!
Students are completely different – and all of us 210,000 Berlin and Brandenburg students are united by at least one thing. We all have a semester ticket. And that is a good thing! So this topic concerns us all!
We want to work together with you to create an affordable, fair and above all student oriented ticket and are looking forward to your support.
The Berlin and Brandenburger AStAs
in cooperation with the IGSemTixBB