Mobility and Transportation
From its founding as a fur-trading post to its role as the Gateway to the West, Greater St. Louis has always valued transportation as a key part of its economy. Today, the region sits at both the geographic and population centers of the country, a multimodal hub of roadways, waterways, airways, railways, and pipeline. Here, three major rivers, five interstate highways, and six Class I railroads all intersect. People and goods can move swiftly and easily into and out of the metro area.
The region’s transportation assets and infrastructure support a variety of sectors, from manufacturing to retail, all strengthened by robust warehousing districts and distribution centers and sustained by skilled labor. The bi-state Metro public transportation system links both Missouri and Illinois, allowing for easy movement of people from one state to the other. And large companies like Enterprise and Unigroup Inc., headquartered here, lead their industries when it comes to mobility and transportation.
The St. Louis region offers businesses:
- An ideal environment for wholesale and warehousing
- A wealth of transportation assets and infrastructure
- A central U.S. location
- Skilled and unskilled labor availability
- An efficient bistate transportation system
- 7,000 acres of Foreign Trade Zone sites
28%
Reach nearly 1/3 of the U.S. population within 500 miles of the St. Louis metro
3rd
By tonnage, with 30 million short tons of freight traffic in 2020
2,350
The robust regional freeway system has lower congestion than other similar areas
Distribution and eCommerce
Abundant quantities of flat land offer excellent conditions for warehousing — ideal for the development of distribution-intensive companies. Amazon employs more than 7,000 workers at more than a dozen separate distribution, sortation, and fulfillment locations in the region.
Logistical Services
St. Louis is an ideal location for companies focused on logistics, transportation and distribution, or those heavily reliant on those components. In fact, the the headquarters of USTRANSCOM, which conducts globally integrated mobility operations for the Department of Defense, is located at Scott Air Force Base in the St. Louis metro.
Transportation and Logistics
Historically strong in the St. Louis region, the transportation and logistics sector has seen significant transformation through the advancement of geospatial technologies. St. Louis’ commitment to making the region a global geospatial hub will serve to grow and advance these and other industry sectors in tandem.
Representative Metro Employers
