After nearly four decades in the railway industry, Howard Smith OBE, director of the Elizabeth line, is retiring from Transport for London (TfL). Speaking to RailStaff, he reflects on a career that has spanned from the Channel Tunnel to Crossrail and beyond. He shares his early experiences, lessons learned, and the evolution of rail safety and professionalism.
Thanks for joining us, Howard. You’ve had a long and distinguished career in rail – could you give us a brief overview of your journey?
I started just over 39 years ago on the old British Rail Operations management graduate scheme. There are so many people from my intake still working in rail, at Network Rail, TOC’s, RSSB and elsewhere, it was quite an exceptional year in that respect.
For the first five years, I was running passenger stations and tracks. Back then, before the railway was split into Network Rail and the operators, you were responsible for everything within your area – a group of eight to ten stations, the tracks, the signal boxes, and all the associated infrastructure but also the stations, rosters, ticket offices, and so on. It was a huge responsibility but a great learning experience.
After that, I joined the Channel Tunnel project, working on the planning and delivery of the first freight services. We used to run up to 13 trains a night from the UK to Northern Italy, Southern France, Paris, and Belgium, mainly intermodal and import and export of new cars. I was also involved in the commercial side, selling to freight forwarders and road haulage groups. This was tough, but it taught me a lot about the need for rail to be competitive and the realities of operating in a pan-European transport market.
When rail freight was privatised, I decided to move to Docklands Light Railway (DLR). That was 26 years ago, and it was a huge shift. At the DLR I led the City Airport extension, the Woolwich extension, and the three-car upgrade in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics. This was a major component of TfL’s infrastructure upgrades for the Games.
In 2004, we established a division of TfL called London Rail, which brought together DLR, London Overground, and trams. We were effectively creating a coherent orbital network for the capital out of several separate lines. Around 2006, attention began to turn seriously to what was then known as Crossrail. After the success of the Olympics – where I was one of five senior transport officers responsible for operations during the Games – I joined the Crossrail project full-time in 2013.
It was an incredible opportunity to help mobilise the operations, maintenance and engineering teams, specify rolling stock, and work with the project teams and the operator, MTR, to get the new railway built and ready. It took longer to open than any of us originally expected, but once the Elizabeth line launched, it was an absolute joy to see it come to life and perform so well.
Now I feel it’s the right moment to step back from running the Elizabeth line itself. The railway is running very well, the new Concessionaire, GTS, is in place, and next month construction begins on the additional 10 Class 345 trains at Derby. It’s as good a time as there will ever be to hand things over.
How did you come to work in the rail industry? Was it a lifelong ambition, or something you fell into by chance?
It’s probably a little bit of both!
My father worked for London Transport, though that wasn’t the reason I joined rail – it just meant I was familiar with the network when I growing up. My parents didn’t drive, so we travelled everywhere by train and, as a Londoner, I developed an early appreciation for how essential railways are to the city.
I remember as a 12-year-old travelling across London to buy bike parts and using the old North London line, which in those days was pretty run down. Even then, I had a sense of how important the railway was to the city, and how much better it could be.
I studied economics at the London School of Economics (LSE) and when I graduated, I had two offers – one to teach economics, and another to join the British Rail graduate scheme. I remember someone saying, “You can always go into teaching later, but you can’t easily go back and join the railway.” That stuck with me.
So, I joined the railway, and within a year I realised I absolutely loved it. The graduate training was fairly unstructured – a lot of time spent shadowing people like driver managers, signal inspectors, and response teams – but it was fascinating. It gave me a deep appreciation for the mix of technology and people that makes rail so unique.
That’s still what keeps me interested today: the combination of technical complexity, human skill, and public service. If it were purely technical, it would feel soulless. But in rail, you have both – people operating technology for the benefit of society – and that’s endlessly motivating.
Who have been the biggest influences or mentors in your career?
You learn from a lot of people over the years. The person who probably had the biggest influence on me is Ian Brown. Ian was managing director of International Freight at BR and later went on to lead DLR and London Rail, which is how I ended up moving there. He’s still very active, even in retirement, and remains a huge influence on the industry.
He really stands out as the person who connected to many of my different experiences – freight, DLR, London Rail, and eventually Crossrail. I owe a lot to him.
I’ve also been lucky to work with people like Chris Green, who set up Network SouthEast in the British Rail days (a coherent regional network for London and the South East) and later Virgin West Coast, before returning as an advisor to Crossrail. And of course, within TfL, I’ve worked with a succession of exceptional Commissioners and Mayors, each bringing different priorities but all deeply committed to improving London’s transport.
You’ve worked on some of the UK’s biggest rail projects. What have been the biggest challenges?
There have been plenty! My early operational years were quite tough – as a station manager, you had real safety accountability. I was managing Balham station at the time of the Clapham rail disaster. By coincidence, I was dealing with an unrelated incident at Balham that morning; otherwise, I would have been early on the scene. It was a deeply sobering period – that disaster, and the King’s Cross fire shortly before, marked a turning point for rail safety. Everyone who worked through that era still remembers it vividly, and we’ve come a very long way since then.
The Channel Tunnel years brought its own challenges. We were dealing with two national rail systems that didn’t always see eye-to-eye. Someone once pointed out that 100% of the UK’s international rail traffic went to France, but only 1% of France’s went the other way! It made for some interesting dynamics.
On the project side, every scheme has its hurdles. The DLR extensions and London Overground upgrades were very successful, but each involved complex public inquiries, technical constraints, and tight deadlines. Even the Emirates Air Line cable car – which I oversaw with Mace – was a fascinating challenge. I still remember taking Boris Johnson and Arnold Schwarzenegger on it during the last day of the 2012 Olympics. That was definitely one of the more surreal moments of my career!
The Olympics themselves were nerve-wracking in the lead-up, but a pleasure once they started. Transport worked brilliantly, largely because of the meticulous planning. It was a joy to walk around stations and control centres and see everything running so smoothly.
Crossrail was, of course, another major challenge – particularly in 2018, when it became clear that the opening would be delayed. That was not a pleasant moment, to put it mildly, but the arrival of strong leadership from people like Mark Wild helped turn things around. In hindsight, those setbacks were relatively modest bumps in a historic and successful journey. At the time, though, they were tough.
What have been the biggest changes in the industry during your career?
The industry is far more professional and safety-focused now. In the 1980s, railways were still very much an old-style, semi-industrial environment. Today, they are complex, customer-facing organisations run to high standards, with well-trained, multidisciplinary teams.
Safety has improved beyond recognition – and not just in physical systems but in culture, attitudes, and accountability. People now think and act differently, and that’s probably the most important evolution of all.
At the same time, the industry has become more complex – sometimes overly so. The fragmentation that came with privatisation introduced competition and innovation but also layers of contractual and political complexity that can slow things down and increase costs. With Great British Railways (GBR) on the horizon, there’s a real opportunity to simplify things again.
We need to keep the professionalism and standards we’ve built but also recover some of the simplicity and clarity that characterised the old railway. Ultimately, the focus should always come back to safety, reliability, and passenger service.
Looking back, what are you most proud of?
It’s very hard to pick just one thing, but the Elizabeth line stands out. Seeing it open and perform so well after so many years of hard work – that’s immensely satisfying. But I’m also proud of the smaller things: mentoring colleagues, supporting teams through difficult periods, and helping create an environment where people genuinely enjoy working.
The rail industry is full of people who care deeply about what they do. That’s what’s kept me here all these years – the people, the purpose, and the knowledge that what we do matters.
What’s your advice to people entering today’s rail industry?
The thing I always tell people is: seize your opportunities. Don’t overthink your career plan. I never had a detailed plan – I just followed what looked interesting and involved good people. That’s served me well.
It’s good to be ambitious, but don’t rush. Take time to learn properly, to understand the business, and to enjoy what you do. If you spend your whole career chasing the next grade, you risk ending up knowing a little about a lot, rather than developing real depth.
The railway rewards curiosity, commitment, and collaboration. If you engage with it fully – technically and socially – it’s one of the most fulfilling careers you can have. And as I often remind new entrees, once you’ve caught the rail bug, you’ll probably never want to leave.
Finally, what’s next for you? Are you planning to retire fully or will you stay involved in rail?
I haven’t decided exactly what comes next – though I’m sure it won’t be ‘nothing’!
I’m not a slippers-and-deckchair sort of person. There are plenty of things outside work that I’d like to spend more time on, but I’m sure I’ll stay connected to rail in some form.
The nice thing about the industry now is that when you move on, you don’t really say goodbye forever. It’s such a connected world that you inevitably cross paths with people again. That continuity is part of what makes rail so special.
Leaving the Elizabeth line is bittersweet, but it feels right. It’s running brilliantly, the team is excellent, and it’s time for new leadership to take it forward. I’ve been privileged to play a small part in building something that will serve Londoners for generations. That’s a legacy I’ll always be proud of.
Image credit: Transport for London
