By law, BMA itself is not allowed to run other state enterprises. The transfer should result in overhauling and streamlining of the agency which now has 20,000 staff. BMTA's financial structure must also be revised before the transfer. BMTA began re-directing its bus network to facilitate the skytrain project and the future subway and Hopewell projects which should be finished in the next few years. Protests from BMTA staff over the transfer remain but they are not as strong as in 1998.
Staff are worried about their employment prospects.
The opening of the BTS skytrain in December provided Bangkok commuters with a chance to use feeder bus services on 13 routes. BMTA granted a feeder bus concession to BTSC, developer of the skytrain project. The feeder bus concession has caused a duplication of existing BMTA routes for 135 buses. Consumer rights' protection groups opposed the new concession, claiming it would cause some impact on the poor. SRT cannot make operational profits from its railways service because of the problem of low fares which have been fixed for several years.