West Virginia is centrally located in the Eastern United States and is equidistant between the Detroit region, Southern states such as South Carolina and Georgia, and the Midwest.
Proximity to customer can be the key to your success: Over 60% of the US population and 50% of the US industry are within overnight trucking distance from West Virginia.
The Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia is only 93 kilometers (58 miles) from the nation’s capital, Washington, DC. International air service is just 45 minutes away at Dulles International Airport, as well as Baltimore Washington International (70 miles / 112 km) and Reagan National (65 miles / 104 km). A convenient MARC commuter train provides daily service to downtown Washington and the Maryland suburbs.
The Northern Panhandle of West Virginia is only 48 kilometers (30 miles) from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and only 25 minutes to Pittsburgh International Airport. Within a short distance to Pittsburgh, the Northern Panhandle location gives you all of the advantages of the big city – including major league sports, important cultural events, and direct access to an international airport.
Highways
Six interstate routes traverse West Virginia, providing quick and easy access to major population and industrial centers in the Northeast, South and Midwest. The state’s highways represent an extensive and reliable transportation network in themselves. They also serve as links in an intermodal transportation system, providing strategic access to transshipment points by rail, water and air. These transportation modes combine to offer West Virginia businesses unmatched versatility and convenience in serving regional, national, and global markets with the most advanced “just-in-time” delivery.
This intermodal transportation concept gives West Virginia a measurable advantage: the capacity for overnight delivery to more than 60% of the U.S. population and more than a third of the Canadian population.
Air travel and freight
Passengers and freight can fly from West Virginia airports to major destinations less than an hour away at Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Roanoke and Washington, D.C. Direct flights also connect the state to Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Atlanta.
Major cities in the northern and eastern panhandles of West Virginia are served directly by Pittsburgh International Airport and Dulles International Airport in Washington DC. Private charters also are available to meet a variety of business needs.
Intercoastal and intracoastal shipping
Beyond U.S. shores ... Parkersburg, West Virginia is less than 200 direct interstate highway miles from the international seaport at Cleveland. Martinsburg, West Virginia is less than 200 miles from the port at Philadelphia, less than 100 miles from the port at Baltimore and less than 50 miles from the Virginia Inland Port at Front Royal.
The Ohio River inland port at Huntington, where West Virginia meets Ohio and Kentucky, is the nation’s largest inland port.
Rails for freight
More than 2,400 miles of railroad track carry almost 250 million tons of freight each year in West Virginia, which is well served by mainline freight carriers CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern. Because of their proximity to river ports and trucking centers, railroads remain an integral component in the state’s intermodal transportation system.