UK: Freight operator GB Railfreight has announced that founder and Chief Executive John Smith is to step back from his role, and the company and its shareholder Infracapital have begun the process of appointing his replacement as part of long-standing succession planning.
Smith will continue to lead GB Railfreight until a ‘smooth handover’ once a successor is in place in the coming year.
Smith joined British Rail a 16-year-old Technician Apprentice in 1977 before working at the York carriage works. He went on to hold management roles at Anglia Railways, where he became Deputy Managing Director, before forming GBRf as a subsidiary of Anglia Railways parent company GB Railways in 1999.
FirstGroup acquired GB Railways in 2003, and the freight business was sold to Eurotunnel’s Europorte in 2010. Swedish private equity investor EQT’s Hector Rail acquired GBRf in 2016, and Infracapital in 2019. Smith was awarded an OBE in the King’s 2025 New Year Honours List for services to rail freight transport.
‘Things I wouldn’t have thought possible’
Announcing the planned transition on March 25, Smith said it had been ’a privilege to lead GBRf for the last 25 years. We’ve achieved things I wouldn’t have thought possible when I founded the company - and that is due to the talent, dedication and passion of the people who have worked here. This transition is being carefully managed over the coming year, and I remain fully committed to leading the business throughout this period.’
Chairman James Cooper said ‘on behalf of the board, we’d like to thank John for his leadership of the business that he helped create and grow over the past 25 years from a start-up to becoming the UK’s largest rail freight operator. As GBRf builds on this extraordinary legacy, we look forward to continuing to work with John in an advisory capacity, lending his invaluable experience in supporting the company in the next phase of its development.’
Other changes
Liam Day has been promoted from Asset Director to Interim Managing Director, while Ian Langton has been promoted from Production Director to Chief Operating Officer.
Day joined GBRf from Network Rail as Terminal Development Manager in 2014, progressing through roles as Head of Estates and General Manager in the commercial team before becoming Commercial Director in March 2020; he was appointed Asset Director in September 2024. Langton began his career at British Rail and joined GBRf from DB Schenker in April 2012 as Head of Operations. He became Production Director in 2018.
