The semester ticket is a combination of Student identification and an official photo document identification, which costs 83,86 € and is valid in the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (VRR). The semester ticket is not freely available. The amount for the semester ticket is payed automatically by each student within the semester fee. Thus, it is acquired by all students.
Starting from 19:00, the weekends (Saturdays and Sundays) and legal holidays (thus not your birthday) you can take a person with you with your semester ticket. Dogs may be carried free of charge. A bicycle may be carried starting at 9:00 in all buses and trains in VRR, as far there is place.
Here is marked the area in which the semester ticket is valid. There you can use all the buses and trains. With the Interregio you must pay 1.65 € additionally (here for more info). The use of IC, EC and ICE trains, as well as changing to the first class is not possible with the semester ticket.
In some cities at the edge of the VRR the semester ticket applies only in certain bus and lines. So for example in Lünen, Unna, Schwerte and Kamen you can use all trains, but only certain buses. The problem here is an often unsatisfactory co-operation of the cities and districts, which make meaningful tariff regulations more difficult.
Exact information in VRR website.
Did you lose your semester ticket??
Shame on you!! You have to do request immediately a new document of identification (costs 3.40 €) in the Zentrum für Studienangelegenheiten. However this takes about two weeks. You get anyway a provisional ticket, which is a simple script that you will have to use together with your certificate of immatriculation and a personal identification to travel in the VRR transport.
