Who is the Man in Seat Sixty-One?

My name is Mark Smith, and I live in England in deepest darkest Buckinghamshire, with wife Nicolette, 5 year old Nathaniel and 2 year old Katelijn.

I'm a career railwayman who ran away from Oxford to join the circus (or British Rail as it was then called) as soon as he could... Starting out in delightful rural Kent on what was then BR's Southern Region, I became the Station Manager for Charing Cross, London Bridge & Cannon Street railway stations in London in the early to mid 90s. I was subsequently the Customer Relations Manager for two major UK train companies, and until a few years ago, I worked in London as the Department for Transport's expert on UK rail fares & ticketing. I now run this site full-time, as it's much more fun than real work...

I've been lucky enough to travel around the world on trains and ships to many interesting places over the years, and I've been on the other side of the counter too - way back in university vacations I worked in a European rail ticketing agency in London, issuing tickets and advising travel agents across the UK on train travel across Europe. So if you'd like some help with a journey you're planning, why not ask the Man in Seat Sixty-One?