Graham Smith, EWS Planning Director, has been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the New Year Honours List, for services to the rail freight industry.

Keith Heller, EWS Chief Executive, said: “Graham Smith, throughout his entire railway career, has sought to improve and develop an efficient freight railway for customers. He has worked tirelessly to ensure that rail freight services provide the transport backbone for British industry, working closely with regulators, Government and other railway bodies to deliver that essential economic service. We at EWS are proud that Graham’s continuous commitment to the rail freight industry has been recognised in the New Years Honours List.”

Graham Smith MBE said: “I am thrilled and deeply honoured to have been made a MBE. During the course of my career in the rail freight industry, I have worked with many exceptional people. I’d like to share the spirit of this honour with all of those people I have worked with, and particularly my family for their support.”

Graham Smith joined the railway in 1978 as a management trainee. After jobs in railway operations he joined the freight sector of British Rail in 1983 where he worked in various commodity sectors. In 1996, following railway privatisation, Graham was appointed Planning Director for EWS. In recent years, Graham has led EWS’s business development in mainland Europe, working on the launch of rail freight services in France and Spain.

At EWS, Graham has developed extensive track capacity studies and led research into improving efficiency in the rail industry, which formed a major input into the Rail Regulator's work on freight track access charging. In the last two years he has led strategic and detailed work on freight track access charges, freight’s role in the new rail industry structure and most recently worked on showing the negative impact of the possible introduction of longer heavier vehicles onto the road network.

Graham is also Chairman of the Rail Freight Operators’ Association, a body that represents the main rail freight companies in the UK, a member of the Railway Heritage Committee, and a member of the Freight Transport Association’s Rail Freight Council. He was educated at the Coopers' Company and Coborn School, and Hull University where he read History and Politics. Graham is 52 and lives in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.