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The chief executive of the TTC is promising a “fresh start” to east-end residents whose battle over second exit proposals for Donlands and Greenwood stations was the subject of a damning report from the city’s ombudsman.

Fiona Crean’s investigation exposing a “total failure” on the part of the transit agency to engage in meaningful public consultation is littered with unflattering adjectives, describing the TTC as “arrogant,” “patronizing” and having demonstrated a “callous disregard” of the residents it serves.

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The probe dates back to June 2010, when the Toronto Transit Commission informed residents near Donlands and Greenwood stations that it intended to build two second exits on Strathmore Blvd by tearing down four houses.

While a complaint was submitted by residents who live near Donlands, the ombudsman’s report found that neither community was properly consulted.

Ms. Crean listed numerous missteps by the TTC in an October report, from a failure to give property owners enough notice — a man was informed by the media that his Greenwood area property was to be expropriated, and only contacted by the agency on the day the acquisition was to be approved — to creating a “two- minute rule” that supposedly stipulated the amount of time passengers have to travel from the platform to a point of safety. TTC relied on that rule, which didn’t exist until then, to discard virtually all the alternative options put forward by Donlands residents.