Robert Bruce Watson (1931-) was the Coordinator for the Northeast Corridor Project for the Penn Central Railroad.

Watson was born on June 29, 1931, at Altoona, Pennsylvania, where his father, Bruce B. Watson (1898-1958), was Chief Inspector in the Test Department of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company (PRR). Watson received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Pennsylvania State College in 1953 and a Certificate in Transportation in railway operations and economics from Yale University in 1958. He began working as a Junior Engineer for the Pennsylvania Railroad while in college and interrupted his studies with two years service (1953-1955) in the Railway Battalions of the U.S. Army at Fort Eustis, Virginia, and in Korea.

Watson returned to the Pennsylvania Railroad in June 1958 and rose quickly through the ranks of the Mechanical Department, reaching the post of Master Mechanic at Philadelphia on February 7, 1966. On September 21, he was chosen to fill the new post of Coordinator of the High Speed Demonstration Project, a post he held until January 1, 1972, when he resigned and was succeeded by Edward R. Stickel (1928-2008). Watson was the railroad's chief field administrator in the cooperative project to develop high speed passenger train service between New York and Washington and the point of contact between the railroad company, the government and the contractors.