Webb was one of dozens of candidates who responded to an international call by the South Australian government in the early 1920s for a Commissioner to manage the government-owned
South Australian Railways. By that time, the railways had decayed to the point of imminent collapse. In 1922, when he started his appointment in
Adelaide, 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 foresee however, the impacts of the
Great Depression and the growth of ownership of motor cars, nor was he fully aware of the millstone of the hundreds of miles of developmental lines, with their unpredictable seasonal agricultural traffic. Webb concentrated on reducing gross ton miles, and augmented net ton miles by increasing full carload lots. He introduced large freight cars and locomotives, heavier track, stronger bridges and efficient practices. His most important changes to working methods occurred in 1924–26: the train control organisation was introduced in 1924, high-capacity bogie freight cars in 1925, and large-power locomotives in 1926. Webb's dramatic railway rehabilitation left few aspects untouched by technological change and innovation. He rehabilitated the South Australian Railways so thoroughly that, for twenty-five years, they were a paragon among Australian railways. While in Adelaide, he lived in the prestigious
Ruthven Mansions in Pulteney Street, in the
city centre.
Legacy Webb was noted for his abilities to enthuse his staff, particularly his senior officers, so that the whole system was imbued with the spirit to serve, to persevere and to deliver the goods. People responded to him and he put his absolute trust in them, being rarely let down. His attitudes were underpinned by respect for people's dignity, as he revealed in a bulletin about service to the public soon after he took up his post. He was also noted for his extraordinary work ethic. Webb's expertise was recognised elsewhere in Australia. In 1924, for example, he spent two weeks in Tasmania advising the Tasmanian Government on its railway problems. He resigned in 1929, to be replaced by
Charles Buxton Anderson. After Webb's departure in May 1930, his administrative reforms were dismantled and the old hierarchy was reinstated, although the South Australian Railways were in a better position than most to meet the huge logistical demands of
World War II. However, despite notable post-war innovations in freight and passenger rolling stock, and locomotive and railcar engineering, the South Australian Railways underwent a slow decline because the state government (as with other state administrations) was unwilling to evolve a rational transportation policy and implement it within the boundaries of the state's fiscal capacity. In 1973, the South Australian Government took up an offer by the newly elected
Whitlam government to hand over its railway system to federal control, and implemented the transfer two years later. Webb's most lasting legacy in Adelaide is
Adelaide railway station, its design combining
neoclassical architecture with that of
union stations in the United States. ==Later career==