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CIT: 120 Years for the benefit of Railways
The international railway transport committee (CIT) is an international association based in Bern. Its mission is to help railway undertakings to implement international transport law, standardizing contractual relationships and save members money supporting their businesses. The basis of CIT was settled at the end of the 19th century, making international transport one of the first fields in international law to be implemented. From a sociological point of view, the civil needs of travelling from a country to the other and transporting goods on an international scale, conducted the national railway undertakings of some European countries to cooperate, in order to facilitate these processes. 2022 is a special year since is the 120th anniversary of CIT.
The Very Beginning
The first international Treaty settling rules for international transport was signed in Bern in 1890 and came into force in 1893. Shortly after, railway companies of some European countries were led to the intention of organizing an international assembly with the scope of implementing those legal prescriptions. Austrian touristic location Zell am See hosted the very first international meeting between railway companies on 9th June 1894. Nine railway companies coming from 8 Countries attended the meeting.
The still existing documentation shows how the representatives were optimistic about the idea of standardizing transport legal prescriptions. On that day, general topics were discussed, such as the way of proceeding with the legal implementation, elaborating the procedure to be followed during the meetings and other general debates. Technical questions were discussed as well.
A new entity was born
The cooperation between railway companies became stronger in the following years. The process of standardization of international rules continued and the representatives met up regularly. On 26th April 1902, the Italian city of Milan hosted the 8th international meeting. On that day, the invited railway undertakings unanimously approved the internal rules of procedure and CIT was officially founded. Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Austria-Hungary and Switzerland were the first countries to be represented.
The first steps
After the official foundation of the committee, various initial projects were accomplished. In 1904, the 2nd version of the convention on the dispatching of goods and the sharing of indemnities concerning international transport was written. The decision-making procedure allowed states to make claims during the debates and a vote system was adopted. The variety of languages and the multicultural identity of the committee required some literary work on the conventions, adapting different versions of the same legal text. In 1911, the first discussions about the international consignement note took place.
The world wars and their consequences for railways
International railway law continued to be integrated during the second decade of the century. Not only national administrations but also regional companies joined CIT. In 1914, the first world war broke out and Europe was put under an unprecedented political tension. International relations stopped and the integration of railways suffered. 1921 had been the year of the reconstitution of CIT. A new regulation for the committee’s work was adopted and new projects were launched. Border’s documentation was standardized such as declarations sheets and administrative fees. During the 20’s new conventions were adopted and for the first time CIV and CIM were mentioned in meeting’s minutes.
In 1927, documents show how the CIT was already operating with the existing international organizations for railways like UIC.
In 1933, the first ticketing aspects were brought into discussions. The aim of the administrations was to create a standard ticket for international journeys. Just before the beginning of the second world war the process of standardization of tariffs was introduced and the developments in this field will be pursued after 1945.
La “renaissance”
At the end of the second world war, Europe needed to be rebuilt both from an architectural and an institutional point of view. CIT was included in this process, so that members restarted their work under a new managing administration and following a new procedure. Cooperation between CIT and other international entities got stronger in that period, as an example we could mention the collaboration with the World Tourism Organization (IUOTO). More generally, CIT’s size was constantly growing and the number of members increasing. Some innovations came also in the ticketing field with the creation of a model of collective ticket.
The 50’s
International railway integration knew a very significant period in the 50’s. Most of the legal questions which are still open today were for the first time discussed in this decade. Within the most important points we could mention the liability of railway undertakings in case of death or injuries, multimodal transport for goods, international consignement note and linking east with west-Europe. The already existing conventions were updated constantly and adapted to the most recent products.
The second half of 20th Century
During the 60’s and the 70’s CIT members work mostly on consolidation and development of the previous projects. CIV and CIM knew several revisions which were followed by CIT’s products implementation. In 1964 a new project in collaboration with UNECE concerning a consignement note was discussed. In 1968, the members discussed about the arbitration procedure to be followed which was inspired by UIC rules. Any procedure was adopted eventually since just a few litigations used to take place. In the second half of the 70’s liability for non-respect of deadlines was brought into discussion. In addition, the aim of the work was to make international railway law less swiss and more international substituting the swiss franc with other currencies in CIV and CIM. In 1975 the concept of contract for multimodal transport appeared on the committee’s minutes. In 1979 the international consignement note was also reviewed.
Liberalization, digitalization and COTIF 99
Like in any other sector, digitalization plays an important role for railways. In the second half of the 80’s we can observe the first technological innovations, especially concerning data. In 1985, the Committee discussed about an instrument that could replace the consignement note and exchanging data automatically. This project has been discussed for many years until the early 90’s.
The last comprehensive revision of COTIF dates from 1980. In the meantime, however, the national and international railway world had changed fundamentally. EU regulation required the separation of operations and infrastructure, and OTIF had to analyze the consequences of this development under transport law. Finally, on June 3, 1999, in Vilnius, the new Convention on International Carriage by Rail (COTIF) was passed. The implementation of the new COTIF became a main topic for the work of the CIT.
Legal solutions to improve the connection between Asia and Europe were also one of the main objects of CIT’s work. The creation of many transport documents CIM/SGMS was necessary, and this process started in 1990.
CIT currently still operate for its mission and work on several projects concerning use of infrastructure, multimodality, passengers, and goods transport. Concerning multimodality, CIT work on projects like legal guidelines comparing different transport regimes in order to assist maritime members. Digitalization and data protection are also key topic in this era. The train to the worldwide integration is still running…
Martino Limoncello, CIT trainee