Undertaking the role of understanding how to expand mass transit and regulate it at the same time in the state of New Hampshire is a challenge. The challenge is how to juggle stakeholders, finances, policies, and ultimately, even the possibility of this feat. Let’s walk through this process together. 
        First and foremost, who is affected by an increase in mass transit? The citizens, transportation companies, policy makers, Department of Transportation, and funders (if transportation companies are unable/unwilling to move into the state). The citizens include those who ride mass transit and those who don’t. These two groups differ in their stance on public funding (taxation) for mass transit, with one group benefitting from the externality and the other not-benefitting directly. This is a concern especially in NH, the live free or die state where taxes are generally not well-received. Policy makers have to jump through the burden of bureaucracy, while the transportation companies and Dept. of Transportation would more than likely work together to implement funding for mass transit, and if not, there are outside funders willing to profit from this venture.
Opportunities to NH for successfully implementing increased mass transit would be a more connected state with the far reaches of northern NH being able to connect to the “urban sprawl” of the seacoast/southern NH regions. This would also allow seacoasters/southerners of NH to venture into the White Mountains and explore the great north (I’m a little bias here being from Conway, but I digress..) The amount of pollution/negative externalities emitted from cars, trucks, and other personal automobiles will be reduced through expanded public transportation. The benefits also include increased jobs, shows a stronger commitment to sustainability and provides those without the luxury of a motor vehicle the ability to get around the state.
Challenges to implementing this policy would of course be the initial and continuous funding of the mass transit program. There certainly are questions that need to be raised, such as how frequent the stops should be, how far away stops should be from one another, where the stops are, what transit system to implement (rail, bus, taxi?), etc. The initial financing can only be achieved once the systems are chosen and routes are selected. This is where the money group and legislation group could meet to discuss whether public funds are necessary or not.
Implementing the mass transit system will require continuous funds for energy, labor, capital costs (size and types of fleet, infrastructure) and this can be done through three ways: privately, mixed, or publicly. Ideally, it would be done privately through the means of ambitious businesses looking to expand mass transit in NH, however, if this proves to be challenging, the idea of mixed funding would come into place [i.e. if company says they can fund 65% of a project’s start-up costs, 35% would come from taxes or other funders]. This implementation will also require educating the public about the availability of these systems, no riders = no transit. Mass transit systems can also start at the grass-roots level with citizens deciding to take action and start their own program. This could be as simple as offering rides to those in need, or starting a ride-share/car-pool program.
