History
The International Rail Transport Committee, known as CIT (Comité international des transports ferroviaires), was formally established at the final railway conference in Milan/Kingdom of Italy between 26 and 28 April 1902 with its first headquarters in Vienna, at the Austro‑Hungarian Foreign Office.The first official session of the CIT General Assembly took place in Florence in 1903. During this meeting, the founding members approved the “Uniform Supplementary Conditions” to the Bernese Convention from 1893 and the “Internal Regulations for the International Rail Transport Committee – CIT.”
Further conferences of the CIT were held in different cities during this early period. Their objectives included drafting procedures for handling freight reimbursement claims and regulating the information required on a consignment note. It’s important to underline that, although its name suggests an international public body, CIT has always been a private based law Association of railway undertakings, not an intergovernmental organisation.
