William Alfred Webb

William Alfred Webb
Starting as a messenger-boy in 1890, William Alfred Webb worked in increasingly senior roles in the US railroad industry until 1922, when he went to South Australia. For the next seven years he led a bold transformation of the state's railway system. In 1930 he returned to the US, and from 1933 until his death he established and oversaw the Texas Centennial Exposition of 1936.
Born	(1878-05-16)16 May 1878 Eaton, Ohio, United States of America
Died	9 August 1936(1936-08-09) (aged 58) Dallas, Texas, United States of America
Residence	United States of America, Australia
Known for	Revolutionising the South Australian Railways in the 1920s

William Alfred Webb (1878–1936) was an American railroad executive who gained wide experience within US railroads and served in the management of nationwide railroad operations during World War 1 before being appointed Commissioner of the South Australian Railways from 1922 to 1930. In this role he undertook a significant rehabilitation program, lifting the state railways from an inefficient and technologically backward system to a pre-eminent position in Australia. On returning to the US he achieved elected office in Dallas before leading the preparations for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition. He died in office two months after the exposition opened.

At the age of 12, Webb began as a messenger boy on the Colorado Midland Railway. He rose from traffic clerk to telegraphist, studied shorthand at night school and became stenographer to the general manager. Appointed secretary to the president of the Colorado and Southern Railway in 1900, Webb was assistant to its vice-president by 1911. He became general manager of the Texas Central Railroad and in 1914 general manager, operations, of the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad. When the United States entered the World War he was called by the United States Railroad Administration to Washington. His wide experience in the private enterprise American railroads had given him a practical grounding in every aspect of rail management. Webb resigned from the United States Railroad Administration in 1920 to become Vice President and General Manager of the St Louis Southwest system until May 1921. This was then followed by a brief period in 1922 as the elected President of the Cambria and Indiana Railroad, which he left due to tensions with the new owner of the railroad.

Webb was one of dozens of candidates who responded to an international call by the South Australian government for a Commissioner to manage its new South Australian Railways in 1922. By this time the railways had decayed to the point of imminent total collapse.

In 1922, when he started his controversial appointment, Webb considered that by applying business operating principles he would be able to get the South Australian Railways on a footing where they would give a minimum return of 6 per cent on the investment. He did not, however, reckon on the Great Depression and the growth of ownership of motor cars; nor was he at the time fully aware of what a millstone were the hundreds of miles of developmental lines with their unpredictable seasonal agricultural traffic.