United Rail Passenger Alliance

Mr. Coates will be laid to rest during a grave side service in his hometown of Helena, Arkansas on Saturday, April 14, 2007 at 1 P.M. He will be buried next to his parents and older sister. His casket will be draped with an American flag which draped his father’s casket. Roller Citizens Funeral Home, 127 South Ninth, West Helena, Arkansas 72390 [(870) 572-6852] will be handling the local arrangements in Helena.

Mr. Coates is survived by two daughters and a son-in-law, two grandchildren, a sister, two nieces and many friends in an extensive network throughout the United States. He was a Christian.

When we think of the persistence of the American intercity passenger train over the last three decades, the overwhelming improbability of their survival and popularity jumps out. But, like many things that add to the quality of our culture, they haven’t “just happened.” The trains have survived, and in their own way flourished because of the vision and toil of a handful of individual people. Some are household names in the community of rail advocates: Graham Claytor and John Riley are among these.

But, others have labored, alone at the start, later in concert with like minded folks with whom they shared the vision, but quite out of the public eye. Among these, all now departed, are Dan Monaghan, Joe MacDonald, Byron Nordberg and Adrian Herzog. Without these people, we simply would not have a national train system in the United States today, or many of the components of that system that contribute to its persistent success.

Another of these great men was Austin Coates. Austin founded the United Rail Passenger Alliance as the cover for his “one man band,” and with it he forged a truly unique bond with decision-makers in Washington, D.C., ranging from all the senior executives of Amtrak to many of the key legislators, and their staff, on Capitol Hill.

I was privileged to meet Austin at a RailPAC meeting in Fresno, California in 1986, convened by Byron Nordberg. From the outset he impressed me as a man of integrity, vision, commitment, and tireless energy. It became immediately apparent we needed to meld our forces together in the cause of promoting economically-sound rail passenger policy and operations. We all contributed to the effort, but Austin’s contributions were among the most critical, for it was he who could open doors in Washington, to get an audience for a little band of what one Massachusetts politician called “Wackos,” a sobriquet that Austin embraced and wore as a badge of pride.

Amtrak as an institution and Amtrak as a service to the American traveler owes much to Austin Coates. We are all beholden to him.

Somewhere, I’d like to think there is a Superliner III sleeping car named the “Austin M. Coates” rolling across America, full of paying passengers.

Austin Coates: A legend

By Russ Jackson

By the time I met Austin Coates, his legend had already been firmly established. In the early 1980s as I became more active with the Rail Passenger Association of California’s predecessor organization (Citizens for Rail California) and was associating first with its then-president, the late Byron Nordberg, and eventually with the late Dr. Adrian Herzog, they were speaking highly of this southern fellow they had met who was actively working to improve and make passenger rail financially viable, and at Amtrak, in particular.

Austin had formed a group of independent realistic advocates to quietly work with the Congress and first the Carter, then the Reagan Administration, to these ends. Those were the days, of course, when President Reagan’s budget for Amtrak was zero, the Congress was overriding him and presenting a budget for Amtrak subsidy which the president eventually signed.

All this was a new political reality for me, and I was intrigued by the practicality of what Austin’s group, which he was calling the United Rail Passenger Alliance, stood for, with his contacts within the government, the people who were rallying around these ideas that Amtrak could stand on its own without heavy subsidy from the government, and how it could grow.

Eventually, the writings of Andy Selden and Bill Hamilton were published in Trains Magazine and the original Passenger Train Journal, and the battle was on. Through Mr. Coates and Mr. Selden, contact was made with the late John Riley, who was President Reagan’s Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration. It was said that Austin could — and would — call anyone in Washington and talk trains and financial responsibility.

My first and only personal contact with Austin was at the RailPAC Annual meeting, held April 26-27, 1986, in Fresno, California. I was impressed, as he was the epitome of the southern gentleman. That meeting came at a time when light rail transit was starting to boom across the country. San Diego’s trolley had shown the way, and had just opened its Euclid line, the first step toward the full eastern service that was to come.

Senator Jim Mills, then President Pro-Tem of the California Senate, was advocating the expansion of the Los Angeles to San Diego corridor for Amtrak, and other politicians in other states were starting to get interested. That Fresno meeting centered around advocacy that RailPAC was offering in California for what was called the “Golden Empire Route” combining what we now call the San Joaquin trains through Fresno, with service across the Tehachapi mountains to San Bernardino and then down to San Diego. It was to be the first big expression of URPA philosophy using the Matrix theory to show how three markets could be served by one train. Dr. Herzog’s research was beginning to land on important desks in Washington, D.C. and other states, and the RailPAC Quarterly Review [now the Western Rail Passenger Review] was publishing serious commentary and research, contributed by URPA members and distributed across the country.

By early 1987, contact had been made through FRA Administrator John Riley to then-Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole, and Mr. Coates wrote her quoting the Matrix theory to discuss Amtrak’s service termination at Akron, Colorado, a small town in Western Colorado on the route of the California Zephyr, and the effect it would have, pointing out what was becoming evident that “Amtrak marketing and planning managers” were not in touch with the long term look at their company, and how they “refuse to consider the effects of their one-at-a-time stop reductions, then they wonder why ridership continues to erode” on affected trains. While Akron, Colorado was a “small town stop,” the loss of the stop still had a large impact on the rest of Amtrak’s matrix of inter-connected trains and routes. This would be a recurring theme which URPA would expound for many years.

In October of 1987, Mr Coates wrote an analysis for the Quarterly Review of Amtrak’s bloated management’s refusal to “achieve something as simple as operating the Palmetto train an additional 148 miles because it might impact the revenue to cost ratio unfavorably.” The train eventually was extended to Jacksonville, Florida from Savannah, Georgia, and URPA was proven right.

He was advocating the management theory of “lean at the top,” using Transamerica as his example (Mr. Coates had previously worked for Transamerica), showing that its corporate staff was a “scant 100,” and “not bad for a $17 billion company with 15,000 employees.” He said, “The time has come for a major down-scaling of managers at Amtrak and an equally major delegation of authority to the field to get work done and money earned.” This was a major topic for URPA’s “Program of Work” at that time, which also included the seeds for the “Southern Transcontinental Corridor Improvement Project,” eventually to become the extension of Amtrak’s Sunset Limited to Jacksonville. The key URPA proposal that year was “Elimination of operating subsidies through effective revenue enhancement programs based mostly on train operations.”

In June 1988, Mr. Coates and URPA wrote to President Reagan urging that John Riley be the next Amtrak President, “to assure Amtrak decisive, effective leadership to sustain its climb toward self-sufficiency.” They advocated that Mr. Riley and then-Chairman/CEO Graham Claytor “divide the two offices.” This was at a time when other organizations were blindly supporting what Amtrak did and said, and were deathly afraid the Reagan administration was serious about eliminating Amtrak. The game was being played in public, but behind the scenes URPA was working to accomplish positive results.

Through the 90s my contacts with Mr. Coates usually came during telephone conversations with Dr. Herzog late in the evening. Adrian would say, “let’s see what Austin thinks,” and dial us into Austin’s Jacksonville number where it was sometimes quite late. That southern gentleman responded with his usual grace and positive attitude, giving us his wisdom.

As late at 2001, Austin Coates was frustrated, but still advocating the strengthening of Amtrak and passenger rail through financially responsible means, continuing to work behind the scene with URPA’s advocacy, and voicing opposition to the policies of the then Amtrak President George Warrington, which were financially ruining the company. He wrote to Congressmen and Senators asking they “withhold all funding from Amtrak until the board is changed,” which would bring an end to that management. Responsible advocacy may not be the popular thing to do, but in Austin Coates’ 1987 words, “He who has ears, let him hear.”

As a result of his URPA work, Mr. Coates was a frequent visitor to Washington and other cities related to Amtrak operations. URPA had a number of achievements during the years under Mr. Coates’ stewardship, including the extension of two trains into Florida, and the retention of passenger rail service along endangered routes. He was welcomed in the offices of many high ranking Amtrak officials, including the late Graham Claytor, Bob Norman, and Robert Vanderclute. On Capitol Hill, he enjoyed a respected relationship with many Capitol Hill staffers, and also members of the Washington press corps. Often, Capitol Hill staffers consulted with Mr. Coates for ideas on passenger rail funding and other Amtrak related issues that were beyond traditional “Amtrak thinking” and the automatic echoes of other, less serious passenger rail advocacy groups. Often, he met individually with members of the Amtrak Board of Directors, and also attended Amtrak board meetings in Washington.

During the mid 1990s when Amtrak’s Texas Eagle was endangered, much credit went to Mr. Coates for his leadership in helping keep the Texas Eagle and three other train routes running.

Mr. Coates served as URPA’s president until early in 2001, when he chose to semi-retire from the day to day activities of the organization, moving from the position of president to chairman of the board of the group and simultaneously moving from Jacksonville after 42 years to his hometown of Helena, Arkansas.

Mr. Coates enjoyed a colorful business career in Jacksonville, where he worked in several industries, including radio and insurance, after a lengthy and adventurous tenure as a general aviation corporate pilot. One of the corporate executives Mr. Coates frequently piloted a plane for was the late Thomas Rice, President of the Atlantic Coast Line, and then Seaboard Coast Line Railroad..

In Jacksonville, Mr. Coates opened his own automobile mechanic business in the 1970s, providing exclusive service to many notable names in the city.

What many members of Congress and the United States Senate did not know, was that after Mr. Coates, in suit and tie, left their Washington offices or Washington receptions where they met Mr. Coates on URPA business, he returned to Jacksonville and personally supervised the servicing of automobiles. It was not unusual for Mr. Coates to have a wrench in his back pocket while talking on the telephone with an under secretary of the United States Department of Transportation or a White House aide.

Along with his corporate life, Mr. Coates was deeply involved in community affairs in Jacksonville, including nearly three decades of volunteer community service work. He was highly regarded in Jacksonville as a problem-solver and crisis resolution counselor to many. He was also well known in the Jacksonville political community and served on a government committee working to restore Jacksonville’s grand downtown train terminal to its original purpose. For three years, he appeared several times a year on a locally produced public affairs television show on the CBS affiliate in Jacksonville.

Mr. Coates attended the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee in 1950 and 1951. From 1953 to 1955, he served in the United States Navy Seabees, and was stationed in Japan and Midway Island.

After his return from the Navy, he was graduated from the Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1957.

… Don’t leave out Austin’s role in the URPA operation that led directly to the Sunset extension to Florida.Briefly, we had put together his observations about both New Orleans and
Jacksonville were major regional transportation hubs anchoring the southeast and Gulf Coast, much as Atlanta does for air traffic in the Southeast, with Adrian’s [Dr. Herzog’s] idea about how “L”-shaped train routes could make a lot of sense in the right applications, to get full use out of capital assets, and to link adjacent and overlapping markets into more effective networks in ways that linear, point-to-point routes couldn’t.

The result was our scheme to convince Amtrak to run The City of New Orleans from Chicago, or maybe even Detroit (which makes a lot of sense, demographically), to New Orleans and then on to Jacksonville, where it would connect to the Atlantic Coast Corridor in both directions.

We did a study and presented the case and the underlying data to John Riley at FRA, and Austin had just started to shop the idea and study on Capitol Hill, when Amtrak suddenly announced its intention to extend the Sunset (originally) to Miami (later pulled back to Orlando, to be near the Sanford maintenance base of the Auto Train, and assure turnarounds even after late arrivals).

We did a lot of the prep work, but it was Austin’s credibility and salesmanship on the Hill that spooked Amtrak into preempting us by doing its own extension across the Gulf coast.

Through Mr. Coates, I went on to meet URPA luminaries such as Andy Selden, Byron Nordberg, Adrian Herzog, Russ Jackson, and many more. Shortly thereafter, I started work with three other railroad consultants on the theory of privatizing VIA Rail Canada. Much of our work on the Canadian project was validated by other members of URPA, and as we went along we all swapped information and experiences.

Most people don’t know about URPA and what goes on with the organization, and this is by design. In the days before e-mail, much of URPA’s business was handled by telephone calls, faxes, and lots of documents floating through the United States Postal Service. Somehow, Austin Coates stayed on top of all of this, in addition to almost everything that was going on at Amtrak. He had an extensive network of contacts at Amtrak, starting on the front lines of conductors, engineers, and station agents, and working all the way up the ranks to the president’s office and members of the Amtrak Board of Directors. He took in everything, filtered it, and parceled it out to us individually for us to add to our particular puzzles we were working on at the time. Nothing was too small to escape his attention, and no one was too important for him to contact and start asking questions.

Today, URPA is the organization it is because of the vision and tenacity of Austin Coates. He cared deeply about passenger rail in the United States, and he wasn’t satisfied with the status quo. He knew we as a nation could do better, and he worked every day, often seven days a week, to help us all do better.

I shall miss him. He was my friend. This is the end of an era marked by a rugged individual who wasn’t at all satisfied with “but, we’ve always done it that way!”
– J. Bruce Richardson