John Smith

John is a rail policy and regulation specialist with over 20 years’ experience in the transport sector. He has a Master’s degree in Transport Economics from the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds.

John has been Director of Policy at the Rail Delivery Group since July 2017. Prior to that he spent six years in the Middle East, firstly developing and implementing the new rail regulatory regime in Saudi Arabia and then as an advisor to Etihad Rail in the UAE on railway legislation, regulation, and wider rail policy.

John spent 10 years at the Office of Rail Regulation between 2001 and 2011 as Director of Railway Markets and Economics. During that time he was also a member of the advisory board of the Office of the Public Private Partnership Arbiter.

At the engineering consultancy Halcrow between 1994 and 2001, John was engaged in transport policy development, project appraisal and implementation, advising Governments, international development banks and commercial organisations.