Transportation aficionado Rich Eichhorst held up his ticket to ride Greyhound out of the shiny, new  Gateway Transportation Center on South 15th Street.

The jacket showed it was the first ticket purchased at the center, which replaces the one at the Old Cass Bank building near downtown St. Louis. Eichhorst was first in line today for the first bus out of the new center and sat in one of the front seats.

Eichhorst bought a ticket for $10.83 on a bus that would have taken him as far as Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. He was permitted to board the first bus, which was bound for Chicago. The driver let him off about 1 1/2 blocks from the center and the other 29 passengers continued on.

Eichhorst, a founder of the Alpha-Zeta Society, has logged other firsts - and lasts. He was on the last train out of Union Station. He was among the first to ride the original MetroLink light-rail system and expanded service to St. Clair County and Shrewsbury.

“Anything with transportation to document it for history,” said Eichhorst, who lives in south St. Louis. “We have fun. And we gave (St. Louis) souvenirs to the first bus in from Los Angeles.”

Eichhorst said the new center doesn’t have enough indoor seating for Greyhound passengers and long-term parking is in short supply.

Milwaukee opened a similar center about nine months ago and “it’s good to merge different modes of transportation under one roof,” said Ted Jadd, Greyhound’s city manager in Milwaukee.

The new St. Louis center also will begin serving Amtrak later this year.