Earlier this week, officials with OC Transpo, Ottawa’s transit agency, announced the return of the city’s light rail (LRT) system as of Monday. Sort of.

After being shut down for two weeks they still won’t run a full complement of trains. And the replacement bus service will continue to operate – which means other routes across the city will see cancellations. OC Transpo doesn’t have enough drivers or buses to run the parallel service without cuts elsewhere.

Friday it was a different announcement. It will be at least another 10 days before the track is ready for the trains.

Monday will be two weeks since the line was shut down for safety issues, two weeks of hell for commuters. There weren’t enough replacement buses, especially in rush hour. And if you tried an alternative route, those buses might just not come, cancelled in favor of the replacements.  My commute went for 30-40 minutes to 60-90 minutes. News reports say it is worse for many people. In 2017, before the LRT was introduced my commute was 25 minutes.

Fares go up each year. That’s understandable, so do costs. But why, when OC Transpo is delivering a substandard service, don’t they make the travel free?

The city and its transit agency have lost an incredible amount of goodwill since the train was launched with great fanfare in 2019. When it works it is a delight to take. But all too often it doesn’t work. Snow, rain, sunshine, it doesn’t like weather. There have been problems with track design and train design. It’s a surprise they haven’t just painted the trains yellow to show just how much of a lemon the thing is.

Still, fuming consumers would be a lot less critical I’d they weren’t paying full fare for such a bad experience. People are buying cars and paying for downtown parking to avoid the unreliability of public transit. so much for the train helping reduce our carbon footprint.

I’m fortunate in that I can work remotely most of the time, and this summer I have been doing just that. For people who don’t have that option, the daily commute is stressful. Why should they have to pay to be stressed?

The city and province both subsidize the transit system. As a taxpayer I understand that I’m going to be on the hook for one way or another. If there’s a farebox shortfall, somebody has to pick up the tab.

If people abandon public transit, my share of the tax tab will get bigger, and I don’t want that. The time for OC Transpo to be building good will is now, when the service, if you can call it that, is atrocious.

If they wait until the system is fixed to offer free fares it may be too late to woo many passengers back. And a full fix, they tell us, is 12-18 months away.

Taxpayers have already shelled out more than $2 billion for a train that is constantly breaking down. Waiving a few fares now would be a drop in the bucket. The commute would still be atrocious, but at least it would be free.

I doubt if those in charge understand that, or the expent of their public relations disaster.