The public transport service for students at Heidelberg University:
For the situation until 30.09.2023 please scroll down. This overview is valid from 01.10.2023
After the necessary cancellation of the semester ticket contract (more information: here) there are some changes in the public transport for the Heidelberg students. The options now available from WiSe 2023/24 will be presented below:
1. statewide youth ticketBW
Area of validity: the entire public transport system in Baden-Württemberg and almost the entire VRN area (if purchased from the VRN, which is recommended)
Price: 365 € per year
Model: Subscription, which is for 1 year. Students can just cancel after 6 months.
Eligible: All students under the age of 27. Bring your validated university ID with you.
Good to know:
From 01.12, the ticket will be valid throughout Germany. The changeover will be automatic, according to the state government. The new name will then be “discounted Germany ticket for young people”. All the conditions presented remain the same, including the age limit.
You can find more information about the JugendticketBW here and here.
2. semester connection ticket
The VRN had promised several times that it would open this ticket to everyone over the age of 27. For the time being, however, there are still internal discussions about the design, so unfortunately we cannot provide any exact details here.
Area of validity: the entire VRN network (excluding West Palatinate)
Price: probably 225.60 per semester
Model: One-time purchase, valid for 6 months
Eligible: Probably all students, but only worth it if you are 27 or older. Carry your validated university ID with you.
3. germany ticket
Area of validity: Germany-wide
Price: 49 € per month
Model: Monthly subscription
Eligible: All
Interesting to know: There are talks about a nationwide uniformly discounted model for students, but these are stalling somewhat. A full solidarity model (compulsory for all) for €29.40 is under discussion. However, it is not clear whether this will ever come and whether this will then be introduced at Heidelberg University. We believe this is the only realistic way to eliminate discrimination against students 27 and older.
Everything else you can find here.
4. evening and weekend regulation (will be cancelled on 30.09.23)
As of 01.10.2023, there will no longer be any entitlement for students to use public transport in the transport association free of charge after 7 p.m. or on weekends and public holidays.
The traffic department is in the process of clarifying the interest and legal possibility of such a possibility and then negotiating something again for the future if necessary.
5. questions
Direct questions to the Transportation Department (verkehrsreferat@stura.uni-heidelberg.de) at any time.
Status as of 09/30/2013:
Semester ticket
The Semestertickt is no longer available, all existing tickets remain valid until the end of the term.
The semester ticket was first introduced in the winter semester 1993/94 at the request of the students and was supported by Heidelberg University, the University of Education and the Studierendenwerk(see history). The new contract of the semester ticket for the students of Heidelberg University came into force at the beginning of the winter semester 2019/20 and runs until the end of the summer semester 2023 (shortened by termination). You can read the exact text of the contract under this link, here’s the short version again:
Your (validated!) student ID is also a public transport ticket on weekdays after 19:00 and on weekends & holidays. Until 5:00 a.m. each morning, you can use buses, S-Bahns, RBs or REs in the entire VRN area (excluding the West Palatinate).
As of February 2023, the ticket, with which you can also travel the eastern VRN area outside the evening and weekend regulations, costs 180.50 euros as a city-subsidized online ticket or 185 euros at the ticket counter.
→ It is important to note that the discount is only available in the RNV (or DB) online store. We therefore (also) recommend that you always purchase your ticket online.
1. you get a .pdf file and you can print it out as many times as you want and get it back for yourself easily if you lose it. If the ticket is not purchased online, it can be replaced only once if lost. The replacement ticket then costs 25 euros handling fee!
2. the ticket at the counter costs e.g. at Heidelberg main station always the regular price, which is more expensive than the online price.
→ Incidentally, as a welcome gift for all first-semester students, the city of Heidelberg reimburses the cost of the semester ticket on a one-off basis. The prerequisite for this is that the students have established their main or sole residence in Heidelberg and this residential status still exists twelve months later. The aim of this action is to increase the number of housing registrations with a view to municipal financial equalization. More info here.
→ Similar offers are also available from the city of Mannheim, for example. So if in doubt, just ask the municipality where you are registering your new residence, it might be worth it!
The evening regulation and the base amount in Heidelberg
!! This regulation will also be discontinued in the winter semester 2023/24. !! There are already no more contributions paid for this winter semester.
All students pay for the semester ticket with their re-registration the so-called base amount (also called “complementary financing”). This currently amounts to 22.80 euros. In addition, another 12.50 euros will be paid for the evening and weekend arrangements, making 35.30 euros at the time of re-registration. Students pay this regardless of whether they buy the semester ticket or not. In return, students at Heidelberg’s universities can use all means of local transport (except long-distance trains such as EC/IC/ICE) in the VRN area (excluding the Western Palatinate) from 7:00 p.m. during the week and all day on weekends.
Students on leave of absence cannot have this basic semester ticket fee reimbursed. This is also pointed out in the university’s information sheet on leave of absence. In the contract with the transport association, § 5 para. 1 states that the contribution regulations of the Studierendenwerk are to be applied. It is clear from § 2 No. 2 of these contribution regulations that the obligation to pay contributions also applies to students on leave of absence.
New since WS 19/20, however, is that students who have already paid the semester ticket fee (and/or VRNnextbike) at another university can have it reimbursed by the VS of Heidelberg University upon request. More information on this and other exemption options can be found here.
What will change with the JugendticketBW?
At least for all students under 27, an interesting alternative will be introduced on March 1, 2023: The JugendticketBW will then be launched. It costs 365 euros a year or 30.42 euros a month and allows travel not only in the transport network of one’s place of residence (i.e. the entire VRN area, with the exception of the West Palatinate on school days until 2 p.m.), but also throughout the rest of Baden-Württemberg that is not covered by this network.
Particularly pleasing: This price is reduced by the solidarity contribution as paid to VRN under the semester ticket agreement, i.e. by 45.60 euros per year. For students at Heidelberg University, this more extensive version of the semester ticket thus costs 26.20 euros per month or 319.40 euros per year, which is even a bit cheaper than the normal VRN semester ticket.
This creditability of the base contribution is also the reason why the StuRa in its 155. session on the other hand, decided to terminate the framework agreement. The other key reason: there would have been no way to keep only the evening, weekend, and holiday provisions, but overturn the Semesterticket solidarity funding. And experience has shown that this arrangement is very dear to the Heidelberg student body.
Also worth knowing:
→ Students up to 27 have the option of purchasing the JugendticketBW as a half-year ticket or, alternatively, can cancel the annual subscription after just six months. In terms of duration, there is therefore no deterioration compared to the previous Semesterticket.
→ Unfortunately, students over 27 cannot purchase this ticket. However, at universities with a semester ticket agreement (such as Heidelberg University), the VRN semester ticket can be purchased as before. Without this agreement, the MAXX ticket would be the cheapest ticket, which would then cost 51.30 euros per month or 615.60 euros per year – almost double.
Tough negotiations with VRN
The contract on ticket prices is reached through long and hard negotiations and is always a compromise. In view of the drastic price increases at the expense of students, which occur almost every semester, the semester ticket price is unquestionably still too high. However, given the preconditions in the negotiations, a comparatively fair contract offer was ultimately negotiated, which was approved by the majority of students via a ballot in the summer semester of 2019. You can read here how exactly the negotiations took place in previous years.