Spreading out use of a limited resource — a detailed example of how trains in Europe are currently trying, with an attractive* failure:

"And if you look at how thin TGV timetables are at off-peak, SNCF is pursuing a profit-maximisation rather than a capacity-maximisation strategy. Yield management has crossed from being a way to nudge passengers onto off peak services, and has become purely a means to maximise profit. And the consequence is severe restrictions on passengers’ flexibility, and rail not being able to adequately boost its modal share."

The whole thing compares train scheduling and pricing to plane ditto, with the complication that planes only share station competition, not track competition, and also we dont want planes to handle regional daily commutes.

uninformed curiosity, how did train+streetcar systems price when that was all we had? How does China do it now?

* attractive only in the mathematical sense

From https://jonworth.eu/yield-management-and-compulsory-reservation-how-much-of-each-should-we-tolerate-in-railways/