Y’all, we rode the #45 for the last time on Friday! I made my old pal from the 45 (no longer a resident of Atlanta) fly down for the event and get on at his same bus stop for the sake of consistency and nostalgia. It was the same as always in the morning – Grady kids with backpacks in the seats next to them, looking at you like you are the hugest creep in the world if you are forced to sit next to them because there are no other available seats.
The 45 will always have a special place in my heart. When I didn’t want to be burdened by using three different parking garages throughout the day or being a sweaty mess from biking, the 45 was my first real MARTA experience, and I think it is probably the gentlest, easiest start for a MARTA beginner. The route was tree-lined and beautiful, most everyone on there was just going to or from their Midtown office jobs or school, the morning bus driver lived for his job, and I often ran into people I knew.
There weren’t the highs and lows of other bus routes that go by dialysis centers or Boulevard. The craziest thing I ever experienced on the 45 was just that there was a terrible odor one afternoon and the bus driver had to stop by Trader Joe’s and search the bus for the source of the smell, but no one could find it. That’s pretty low key.
MARTA still has an accidental homage to the route on its schedule page.
I will never forget you, my fellow 45 riders – older man with the running shoes, and younger guy with the WABE bag, and other guy with just brown hair, and lady with the paper bag, and woman with the mauve trench coat, and Grady High School students who sagged your neon skinny jeans so it looked like you pooped your pants, and cool urban mom with the giant stroller, and city planner for my old NPU, and the Jesus Greaser, and all the other riders who came and went from my life on the 45. Maybe we should all start a Facebook group and have an annual reunion where we rent a charter bus and ride it from the Candler Park station to Midtown station and back.
Update: Read Maria Saporta’s tribute to the 45, including some great history (that precedes 2007) of the route.
Previously: Transit happenstance
Tags: marta
Awww. Number 16 and Number 2 for me before the trains. Number 2 because the Toyota dealership was almost across the street from the Dekalb courthouse. You said hello to commute friends and acquaintances, but didn’t sit or talk with them so you could read uninterrupted.
i rode the 45 for a year and half and i remember the cool urban mom with the giant stroller. so funny! i have to admit, the craziest thing i saw on that route was while the bus was picking up at midtown station. two people in wheelchairs got on and strapped in and proceeded to have a huge argument. it was a far cry from my days on the number 2 down ponce.
Thanks for your MARTA bus reminisces. My route was the #2, every day from downtown Decatur and west on Ponce to N. Highland. Also a very scenic route, through Druid Hills. So many different people from many different backgrounds that I saw and had short conversations with on many occasion. Commuters from the suburbs don’t know the humanizing experience they miss by driving to work. I think I could write a book about my experiences “on the bus”. Thanks again.
I only took the #2 east all the way into Decatur a couple of times, but it was a great route for seeing the edges of so many neighborhoods. I was sad to see it get chopped up.
When we first met, my wife and I lived on opposite ends of the 45. We’re both pretty diehard carfree people, so that route was a pretty great link for us (until we moved in together and didn’t need it for that anymore). So I have fond memories attached to that route that the new #36 can’t quite fill.
I think I know who you’re talking about with older man in running shoes! I still see him around on the #36 and the #99. A few other 45 regulars I recognize too. Nice to see that when the routes go away, some of the people stay.
It was such a classy ride.