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CIM Committee takes strategic decisions in 2025
CIM Committee takes strategic decisions in 2025
At its meeting on 27 March 2025, the CIM Committee chaired by Julie Meunier (Hexafret) endorsed the enhancement of the CIT Freight products. The revision of the COTIF CIM and CUV Uniform Rules is of strategic significance for the work of the CIT General Secretariat, as does the revision of the Telematics TSI at EU level. The day before the meeting, the CIT GS held a CIM workshop attended by 40 representatives of member railways.
New CIT Freight products
In order to enhance the CIT Freight products and meet the market needs of CIT members, the CIT GS has developed a boilerplate contract for sub-contracted carriage through the CIM Working Group (CIM WG). This creates legal certainty at the interface between the contractual or successive carrier(s) and the substitute carrier(s), including a possible legal solution for cascading of the contractual legal obligations between the substitute carriers. For the contractual carrier on the other side, a harmonised interface for the services performed by the substitute carrier(s) could serve as quality assurance of the sub-contractors involved in the movement.
The CIT GS also intends to amend the definition of the substitute carrier in Article 3 b) CIM in order to enable continued cascading legal obligations between substitute carriers in the CIM Uniform Rules (CIM UR) (see below). In practice, movements often involve several substitute carriers performing all or part of the transport service as well as a number of ancillary services on top of carriage, yet the contractual carrier is not informed of these directly via field 57 (“Other carriers”) of the CIM consignment note.
Revising the COTIF: the CIM and CUV UR
On 7 January 2025, the CIT GS submitted suggestions for revision of the COTIF CIM and CUV Uniform Rules (as well as CIV and CUI) in connection with the OTIF survey of October 2024. These suggestions was discussed at the 7th meeting of the OTIF Ad hoc Committee on Legal Matters and International Cooperation on 9-10 April 2025.
The CIT GS specific suggestions on how to revise the CIM UR are based on those already made by CIT with a detailed legal reasoning and relate to the following articles in the CIM Uniform Rules:
- Article 3b Definitions - Amend the definition of “substitute carrier”
- Article 6 § 2 Contract of carriage - Unbundle the contract of carriage from the CIM consignment note;
- Article 23 § 3 lit. a) Basis of liability - Further simplification is proposed for the practical use of open wagons;
- Articles 42, 47 § 2 lit. a) para 2 and 17 § 4 Formal report - Delete the existing provisions on the drawing-up of the formal report and replace them with a proposed new Article 42 CIM on damage reporting and extinction of claims;
- Article 43 § 1 Claims – Change the permitted format for claims: claims henceforth to be possible and authorised in electronic form to foster electronic data exchange.
The OTIF Secretariat has also sent two documents in relation to the CUV UR revision: LAW-25020-JUR 7/6 “Wagon law” and LAW-25022-JUR 7/6 “Liability under Article 7 of the CUV UR”. In relation to the CIM UR and CUV UR and the operation of empty wagons, the OTIF paper gives the impression that no clear legal distinction is drawn between the contract of carriage of loaded wagons under the CIM UR (in casu Art. 24 § 1 CIM) on the one hand and the contract of use for empty wagons under the CUV UR (Art. 4 CUV) on the other hand. The lack of a clear and strict distinction between the contract of carriage under the CIM UR and the contract of use under the CUV UR can have serious legal consequences for COTIF Member States and other users of COTIF law such as CIT and its members should this not be discussed thoroughly and clarified further.
It seems likely that the OTIF Secretariat is planning a further two consultations for the Ad-hoc Committee meeting in November 2025 to take matters: one on wagon law under the CUV UR and the other on digitalisation of transport documents under the CIM UR.
The CIT plans to coordinate the positions of the members in regards of the two planned questionnaires and preserve the their interest for the OTIF programme of work 2025-2027.
Revision of TAF TSI and the new “Telematics TSI” at EU level
Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1693 was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 8 September 2023, and amends Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/773 on the technical specification for interoperability relating to the operation and traffic management subsystem of the rail system within the European Union. The CIT GS is also involved in the important discussions aiming to alter the regulatory structures of the TSI Telematics, which are taking place in the coordinating meetings with ERA as part of the new Core Team with RNE (Rail Net Europe).
In this context, a letter + technical appendix have been drafted for members of the RISC103 Committee calling for an improved structure and, above all, clarification of the added of the revised Telematics TSI. The draft Telematics TSI defines new tasks extending the use of EDI and introduces new concepts for which the sector can see no benefit. It is noteworthy that none of these proposals has undergone an impact assessment or cost-benefit analysis.
Version EN08 of the TSI Telematics file and annex (TSI TA) has been analysed in depth at various ad hoc meetings of the Joint Sector Group. Unfortunately, many key comments and proposals made by the sector have been ignored by the European Commission. Alongside CER and UIC, the CIT GS continues to push for a positive solution for the rail sector through the Joint Sector Group.
Next meeting
The next meeting of the CIM Committee will be held on 26 March 2026 at CIT headquarters in Bern.
2025-03-31
