Welcome to St. Louis!

BY TAULBY ROACH
President and CEO
Bi-State Development / Metro Transit
St. Louis, MO

On behalf of everyone at Bi-State Development and Metro Transit, welcome to St. Louis.

This is a river city, built at the confluence of two great American waterways; and that spirit of confluence runs through everything we do. We are a region where industries meet, where north meets south, where east meets west—and where getting people to those meeting points, reliably and safely, is our job every single day. When you step off the plane, the train, or the bus this week, you are stepping into a region that has always understood that infrastructure is destiny.

Take some time while you’re here. Ride the MetroLink or hop aboard one of our MetroBus routes to explore the region. Visit the Gateway Arch, still one of the most breathtaking pieces of public architecture in the country, and stand where Lewis and Clark once launched a nation’s westward story. Walk through Forest Park—larger than Central Park and free to everyone—home to our zoo, our art museum, and the very grounds of the 1904 World’s Fair. Then treat yourself to some of St. Louis’ most iconic flavors—from toasted ravioli and St. Louis-style barbecue to a slice of Provel-topped St. Louis-style pizza, a scoop of Ted Drewes frozen custard, and a piece of gooey butter cake. This region does not do anything halfway, and that includes how we move our people.

That brings me to why you are really here: APTAtech. Public transit is not a side conversation in St. Louis, it is core to how this region grows. Over the past several years, Metro Transit has undertaken the most significant modernization in a generation, and I could not be prouder of what our team has built.

We secured $196 million in federal funding to launch a $390.4 million procurement for 55 new MetroLink light rail vehicles, replacing cars that have served riders for more than three decades, with delivery beginning in 2027. We are investing $62 million in our Secure Platform Plan, installing gates and fencing across all 39 MetroLink stations in Missouri and Illinois and nearing completion this year, because safety is not a feature of good transit, it is the foundation of it. We stood up a Real-Time Camera Center that gives our team an extra set of eyes across the system, protecting riders and employees alike. And through all of this investment, we have held average annual budget growth under two percent for six straight fiscal years, proving that a transit agency can modernize aggressively and still be a responsible steward of public dollars.

None of this happens in isolation. It happens because this region—its business leaders, its elected officials, its riders—believes that connecting people to jobs, to healthcare, to each other, is worth doing right.

So, welcome. Welcome to a region that moved a nation west, and welcome to a transit system that is moving forward just as boldly. I hope you leave St. Louis not just with new ideas for your own communities, but with the same conviction that brought me to this work: that transit is not just how people get somewhere. It is how a region becomes something amazing.