T chief feeling the heat after Twitter tirade on weather

Ramirez posts, then deletes, delay excuses

MBTA “turnaround CEO” Luis Manuel Ramirez indicated this weekend’s massive delays were unavoidable thanks to “Siberian temperatures,” in a now-deleted tweet that came as T officials were again forecasting late trains for beleaguered commuters heading back to work.

Ramirez, faced with an avalanche of criticism about the cold-snap delays, lashed back on Saturday in tweets he later deleted.

“No system in North America is designed for Siberian temperatures that last more than a few hours,” he wrote. “In fact, fire hydrants are freezing, house pipes are bursting. All local infrastructure is impacted.”

Ramirez dismissed the tweet as “no big deal,” during a brief interview with the Herald, but declined to explain why he deleted it.

“It’s my personal account,” he told the Herald yesterday.

T officials warned commuters to “build an extra 15 to 20 minutes into their Monday morning commutes” last night — a repeat for a similar warning a week ago, and following cancellations and delays during Friday night’s rush hour.

Gov. Charlie Baker’s political foes pounced on the deleted tweet as proof that nothing has changed, despite funneling $100 million into the public transit system.

“Governor Baker said he was going to fix this three years ago,” said Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jay Gonzalez. He blasted Ramirez’s tweet as “unacceptable. This is Boston. It gets cold.”

Baker made MBTA reform a cornerstone of his administration after record snowfall threw the agency into crisis only months after he took office. The T’s former general manager, Beverly Scott, who had suggested frustrated MBTA customers “please dress warmly” as they waited in frigid temps, stepped down amid the political backlash.

The MBTA is still plagued with delays despite Baker’s efforts, which include $100 million on track heating and snow removal equipment as well as a new electrified third rail. Only 35 percent of commuter rail trains were on time Friday, according to MBTA performance records.

This storm in particular could cost Baker politically.

“Public perception is as important as performance statistics,” said Steve Koczela, president of MassInc and a vocal T critic.

‘No system in North America is designed for Siberian temperatures that last more than a few hours.’ — LUIS MANUEL RAMIREZ, MBTA GM, in deleted tweet

STAFF FILE PHOTOS, TOP, BY CHRISTOPHER EVANS; ABOVE, BY MATT STONE; AND, RIGHT, BY NICOLAUS CZARNECKI OUT IN THE COLD: Gov. Charlie Baker and MBTA GM Luis Manuel Ramirez, top right, face criticism after Ramirez tweeted, and subsequently deleted, excuses for the T’s service delays last week that he attributed to ‘Siberian temperatures.’