Photo by Flickr user Noelster

We received a deluge of obituaries for the dear 26-Valencia which, along with the 4, 7, 20, 53, and 89 lines, will say goodbye to us after SFMTA’s service changes this Saturday. Rider Noelster sent us a pictorial memorial of the 26, which you’ll see with today’s two-part farewell to the line.

First, a poem from Beth W.:

Bubblegum-scented perfume and fried chicken –
someone’s lunch – are competing to pollute
the stuffy air inside this bus, whose windows
are shut because nobody is tall enough to
reach them. It’s a warm day; people are fanning
themselves and my baby is squirming. At each stop
more passengers pile on: the baby-store clerk
with her blonde pixie haircut, glamorous sunglasses
and terrier; a cluster of teenagers; a man
whose ponytail and wheelchair seem mismatched,
even though this is San Francisco, where “mismatched”
is a kind of civic duty. Each time a frail old woman
or man carrying a cane or too many bags gets on,
passengers give up their seats. Even the driver is polite,
a rarity in this much-maligned transit system. It’s hard
to believe that this route will be axed, a victim of
budget cuts, on the grounds that nobody uses it.

From Angela:

Muni bus line, 26-Valencia passed away quietly in her sleep on Dec. 5, 2009. A somewhat urban school bus, the 26-Valencia serviced your local San Francisco public school students and commuters for many years.

The 26-Valencia started her route on the corner of 5th and Jessie Streets in downtown San Francisco, making frequent stops near or within walking distance from Horace Mann Middle School, Glen Park School, Balboa High School, City College of SF, to her final destination at 19th and Holloway, just steps away from San Francisco State University. Most recently, her route was shortened, due to low-ridership, to a final stop at the Balboa BART Station.

Considered quiet and shy compared to her more colorful and eccentric Muni cousins, the 26-Valencia was at times always on schedule and reliable. It would be an understatement to say that the 26-Valencia will be missed from the streets of San Francisco.

In lieu of flowers, her remaining Muni family requests that SF commuters continue to support public transportation.

Photo by Flickr user Noelster

From Muni Diaries ace reporter Tara:

I don’t have a whole lot to say about the 26, as I haven’t ridden it that much, all told.

(How’s that for a start to an obituary?)

It brought me home (safely) after a party once. It served as a sometimes-alternative to its cousins, the 14-Mission and 49-Van Ness, if it happened to be rolling by.

But as a woman who often walks alone on Valencia Street, sometimes at night, the 26-Valencia was always a welcome sight. Almost like a favorite barista, favorite Muni driver, or your own home, it’s comforting to see a cheery, new, tiny bus, garishly lit, rushing down the street as you walk home alone from work or from the bar.

Unlike Mission Street, no stranger to transit, traffic, and transit-related traffic, quieter Valencia, especially south of 16th Street, calms down quite a bit once the sun goes down. With the exception of neighborhood bars like Amnesia or Elbo Room, Valencia turns into a darkened set of window displays, dim restaurants, doors covered in cages, and Omer (“Bum Jovi”) the asshole musician causing some kind of random, startling hold-up near that Social Security building.

But you could always count on the 26 and its sum total of five passengers heading past, to who knows where. Though the where was never that important for me regarding this particular route, the when definitely was.

Thanks, 26! We on Valencia will miss you.

From JT:

I’m sad to see the 26 go. When I was a student ages ago at SFSU, it was an easy one-bus commute. It’s a clean and quiet alternative to getting downtown. It got me to Glen Park for my guitar lessons. I guess I’ll have to take the J and climb the stairs now.

Stay tuned for more memories about the 26 coming up this afternoon.

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If you liked this Muni diary, you might like:

1. Obituary: 26-Valencia, ‘The Rich Man’s 14-Mission’
2. Visions of the 26-Valencia
3. Obituary: 20-Columbus, an Exclusive Club (2007-2009)