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Since when is it a good idea to punish people who use transit because other people don’t?

There are two things about transit that I would suggest are imperative to success: it has to be there, and it has to be affordable. Plenty of communities have suffered simply because there aren’t enough buses or trains to get enough people where they need to go. Or because the cost deters people who might otherwise be willing to drop the car.

Ontario has been trying to remedy the first of these imperatives in the country’s most populous region by expanding GO train service, but seems confused by the notion of affordability. Just as riders were enjoying some headway in the frequency of service, along came that greatest of threats to the wary commuter, a bureaucrat with a bright idea.

Sorting through options for driving customers completely bonkers, the regional transit agency Metrolinx seized on one that could have an immediate impact: start charging people to park their cars. A spokeswoman explained that increased ridership was making it tougher to find spaces in car parks. Hiking the cost via parking fees might free up spaces by driving off people who don’t want to pay. Eureka! In one fell swoop, the very point of transit, to get people out of their cars and onto trains or buses, could be undermined.

Photo by Dave Abel/Postmedia News

The ensuing anger once again forced Mulroney to face the microphones, where she insisted the government was committed to free parking while adding the dreaded caveat that it was still “looking at all sorts of options.”

Maybe she should look at what it already costs people to abandon the comfort of their car to wait on a cold platform in hope of a seat. A passenger heading to the city for a pretty normal commute from Whitby or Burlington faces a return fare of $22 to $25 a day, or maybe $500 a month, or $1,000 for a couple. That’s roughly the payment on a $200,000 mortgage, which at least is buying you something rather than using up your day looking out a window. Yet Mulroney had barely had time to return to her office (presumably not by transit) before the province confirmed it planned to cancel another fare program that offered a discount to GO riders who also used the city subway to get to work. Henceforth passengers will have to pay full price for both.

This is not a plan calculated to produce success. Affordable transit is an elementary and down-to-Earth means of planet-saving. Boondoggles, high costs and bad ideas are unhelpful impediments.

• Twitter: KellyMcParland