Shut down the railroad companies

I am a huge fan of public transports, in fact the big cities and the population would be much better off with a lot less cars.  Traffic has broken down and the costs are humongous. I really enjoy it when I can go by train instead of by car.  It saves time and is cheaper.  I can work on the train - or relax.  Cutting down on public transports, as the government is planning - to save money - seems like idiocy to me.  However, there may be economic reasons that makes it imperative.  But, I believe I have a better plan:

The public train transport companies are all broke.  They have huge insurmountable debts, yet the strikes will continue.  Not even the threat of not being able to pay salaries from the administration of CP (Portuguese railroad company) will have any effect.  Perhaps the unions will do us a favor and close down the railroad companies (CP, Metro Lisboa, Metro Porto etc.) by more strikes.  Why just the the 23-25th. of December and the 1st. of January?  Do a whole month.

I think it is a wonderful solution.  Let the companies go broke.  Fire everybody - they were warned.  Close the companies for good.  Let the state keep the infrastructures and ask private companies to run the train service on two year concession contracts.  Make entry into Lisbon and Porto with a private car expensive with a payment system. The congestion charge in London is a good example.  Use the money earned to finance public transport in the two big cities.  A more modest model could be used in other smaller cities as well.

A lot of the fired people (excluding most of the bureaucrats and the corrupt managers) will get their jobs back in the new private companies winning the concessions.

However they will probably have to accept salaries at the market level - perhaps 50% less for some groups.

Until the labor laws are changed, the much criticized incentives of paying a bonus for going to work everyday and an additional bonus for complete months is pure genius.  As you can not fire people for not doing their jobs or being sick the whole time, the answer is to use bonuses instead of salary to make them perform adequately and everyday.

The one or two months it will take to get the trains up and running again, I will not mind to drive 6 people forth and back from Lisbon everyday for free.  It will cost me some money and a lot of time.  But in the long run I will save on my tax bill.  I am sure other volunteers can be found either to drive people or to help pay for some buses until train services can be reestablished.   The armed forces can help as well.  Presently there are no wars to be fought, no invasions of Portugal by foreign powers - au contraire, foreigners and natives are fleeing from Portugal - and training could be put on hold for a few months.