26 miles round trip or each way?

I ask because if it's one way either you're much faster on the bike than I am or your buses are much quicker than ours. On a single road a bus can sometimes outpace me if it doesn't have too many stops to make, but once they start winding through neighborhoods, there aren't a lot of buses that I couldn't beat from the start of their route to the end.

Of course, I'm just asking out of curiosity now. You obviously know your situation better than I do.

I actually do a multi-modal commute in the winter, driving to a park-and-ride in the morning and riding from there, then taking the light rail back at night if it's raining. For me, the train is slower than biking but I don't like to ride in the rain at night. It sounds to me like you can make your plan work.