Millennium Magazine_6th Ed

341 Millennium - A Marquis Who’s Who Magazine WES COATES, MBA GENERAL MANAGER Delaware & Ulster Railroad Rensselaer, NY Since 2017, Mr. Coates has been the general manager of Delaware & Ulster Railroad, a scenic railroad in the Western Catskills. Under his leadership, ridership has grown, and he has managed new investment in equipment and infrastructure. Since 2014, he has been a project manager at HNTB Corporation in the area of Rail Operational Analysis. At Amtrak, he was the general manager of the Empire Corridor in New York State and managed new rail service to Rutland, Vermont, and worked with the Adirondack and Maple Leaf to improve rail passenger from New York City to Canada. For his work on revitalizing rail service on the Empire Corridor, Mr. Coates received the President’s Achievement Award. Under his leadership, the line gained significant ridership. Prior to joining Amtrak, he worked for the New Jersey Transit as the line superintendent of the Morris & Essex Lines, and before that, as the superintendent of theMain/Bergen Lines. He also worked with passengers on Metro North’s Port Jervis Line and was active in the management of passenger trains on the Hoboken District. Mr. Coates is a speaker and presenter on railroad operations and history. In 2019, he was a presenter for the New York Society of Professional Engineers. In 2019, the Delaware & Ulster Railroad was recognized as Tourist Attraction of the Year by the Catskill Mountain News, and in 2018, he received the Tourism Achievement Award from the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Coates attributes his success to a passion for excellence and accomplishing goals. He will often talk about how railroads and trains are the threads that bring people and towns together. Today, he is proud of the work he does with the Delaware & Ulster Railroad, and how it supports the economy and builds a place for the railroad in community. W es Coates comes from a family of long-time railroaders. He has collected railroad books for more than 50 years and proudly owns a large comprehensive research library. He received a BA inmanagerial economics from Lycoming College and an MBA in operations management from the Sage College of Albany. TRANSPORTATION