Mr Howard Smith | COO
Transport for London, London Rail

Howard studied economics at LSE before managing train operations and stations in South and West London. In the 1990’s he worked on the planning of international freight services including establishing joint ventures with Belgian and Swiss public and private sector partners. He became Managing Director of one of these joint ventures, operating rail freight services between the UK, France, Spain and Italy. In 1998 Howard joined the Docklands Light Railway and was heavily involved, as Director DLR, in the City Airport and Woolwich Arsenal Extensions, as well as the 3 Car capacity upgrade. Howard moved to London Rail as Chief Operating Officer at the end of 2004 where he has responsibility for the projects and operations of London Overground, DLR and Tramlink as well TfL’s operational input to Crossrail. London Rail’s current Investment Programme has a value of around £2.5bn. This includes the extension of the East London Line, which forms part of the wider Overground network and which opened, a month early, in May 2010.