Tokyo subway is privatized and is very very good.

Fine. Sell it to some investment firm, let the new owners run it with zero empathy, pay off whoever they need to pay off to kick out the union, reduce headcount, cut benefits, sell off assets and all the other things you expect and investment firm worth anything to do when it acquires something. Then in a decade when that becomes untenable and the public demands the state take back over the state takes back over and inherits a much different and more workable mess than it has at present.

The hole is very deep. There's no way out that isn't slow and painful.