Thing is, these are explanations.

It’s just that I don’t think that two maps of train lines can be compared to each other without accounting for different distributions of population, that’s what my comment was about.

True, but then Switzerland would look very different. It’s less about cost and more about need.

It would be interesting to correlate this with population density. Like, Spain looks pretty empty until you realise that the population is actually focused mostly around few big cities, while Germany had lots of villages and small towns throughout its area.

I bet his favourite art style was picture-perfect copies of landscapes that don’t allow artists much freedom of expression, to make it impossible for them to hide any unwanted social criticism in it.