Originally published on wsj.com
The move by retail business from shopping districts to warehouses, job growth on the outskirts of cities is stretching the ability of transit agencies to get workers to far-flung sites
South Carolina’s workforce development office ran into a problem earlier this year. Big businesses including Amazon.com Inc. AMZN 4.03% wanted to hire workers at their facilities in an industrial region outside the capital city of Columbia, but area residents looking for jobs couldn’t find a way to get there.
It took coordinated action by state, county and regional transit officials—along with meetings with four businesses that had set up shop there—to lay out a plan for a new bus route several times daily across the Congaree River to a site well positioned for distribution and quick delivery of e-commerce orders but well beyond the reach of many workers who use public transit.
Until recently, “Nobody had a reason to go out there,” said Tiffany James, a spokeswoman for the transit authority, known as the Comet. “There’s nothing else out toward that way.”
