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Either split the company or take away a good chunk of its time slots. Then if a particular service makes a profit : auction it to the highest bidder (say a sunday afternoon train to cork).
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Split the company into seperate operators for entire routes will work as they are mostly stand alones. Time slots...... how could that possibly work?
I'm getting the gner train at 15.00 to Galway. I'm coming back on a Virgin on Sunday at 18.00. How can I get a return, they're separate companies. How can Virgin get its train to Galway if GNER is coming back down the line? What if GNER only bids for the trip on a Friday afternoon and back on the Sunday (the most profitable ones). Will its train sit in Galway for the weekend? What if you have to come back earlier, or later, and there isnt another GNER train till next week?
I'd argue it is possible (just) with buses in cities. It has worked with the planes, a little point I'll come back to in a mo, but it cant work with railways here in Ireland, because of this:
http://www.iarnrodeireann.ie/your_jo...ercity_map.asp
the is only double lined tracks between Dublin/Belfast, Dublin/Cork, Dublin/Maynooth. All the rest are single (open to correction on Cork/Cobh only seen it from the Fence in Fota wildlife park). What is the point in one company holding the 1600 to Waterford and another having the 1800? The reality is that all of the services are cross-subsidised i know this because of the cvost in my return ticket (the concept of five day returns will also go out the window under yourt plan). No other line makes anything like a profit.
As for Ryanair, they were very lucky when they started out that they were competing against Aer Lingus as it was. From a company that nearly went bang in 2001 to making over a hundred milllion in priofits wihtiun 5 years it just goes to show - nothing wrong with semi-states, something wrong with the people running those semi-states.