Do MBTA riders deserve a financial break to help make up for the weeks of winter weather-related delays and cancellations they endured?

The answer is yes, after Massachusetts' transportation board voted Wednesday for a free fare day April 24 on all services and a 15 percent discount on May passes to atone for the problems that plagued passengers.

"I hope that the public will see this as a genuine gesture to restore some value and to regain their trust," interim MBTA General Manager Frank DePaola said.

Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said she thinks this will help ridership return.

"I want to make sure that we have not scared people away from the system or frustrated people away from the system," she said. "I think what we owe our customers - more than a single day or a monthly discount - is great service and active efforts to communicate with them and bring them back to the system."

Pollack added that Gov. Charlie Baker agreed with her that the combination of a free fare day and discounted May monthly passes was appropriate.

"I think this strikes a good balance between husbanding as much revenue as we can, which is ultimately the best thing we can do for our customers, but we heard loud and clear after the last board meeting that people felt they were owed some program that acknowledged what they'd gone through and that expressed appreciation, and I think this is the program that made sense," Pollack said.

Riders necn spoke to in Copley Square were split on whether the $5 million package of free and discounted service - equal to about $1 of every $380 the T will spend in its $1.9 billion annual budget - was a meaningful enough gesture.

"It sounds great. I think it's awesome," said Jess Leroy of South Boston, a regular rider of the No. 9 bus from Southie to Copley Square.

But Alicia Fontaine of Watertown said she would have expected the T to offer "maybe like a 50 percent discount on passes, because those monthly passes get expensive, especially if the service is not equal to the price."

Kim Alleyne, who rides two buses and a train to commute between her home in Hyde Park and Fenway, said that "for folks who missed out on work, folks who really don't earn a whole lot of money, I'm not sure that's going to go far enough. But to be honest, with the kinds of problems that the T has, I wonder if it might be better to spend it on other improvements."

MBTA officials had floated several ideas to compensate passengers, ranging from a week of free fares on the system to rebates for monthly pass holders.

All of the proposals would come with a price tag for the T. It's estimated that a free fare week, for example, would result in $6 million in lost revenue. Some board members worry that would take resources away from upgrading the aging system and prevent future failures.

Board chairman John Jenkins said he also worried that offering refunds could set a precedent that customers would expect in the future.

In the meeting, officials said the blizzards left MassDOT in the red after spending $22 million more on its $107 million snow removal budget. DePaola said Keolis, the company that runs its commuter rails, needs 65 trains for 100 percent service, but has 55 currently on the rails.

DePaola added the a real issue for the MBTA was maintaining infrastructure, such as third-rail heaters and switch heaters to stay ahead of the snow.

Content from the Associated Press was used in this report.