Railway trains are symbols of power, especially when carried along by steam engines. But railways are also a symbol of domesticity. Boarding a passenger train, ticketed passengers know their destinations. It doesn't crash, except in the most exceptional circumstances. A land filled with railways, like the USA of my atlas, is a settled land.
People can move as they like.
No wonder Paul Simon feels that the sound of a train in the distance reassures you that life could be better. All you have to do is travel far enough and you reach that better life. Something like this must have occurred to the people who built Melbourne. Suburban houses fill the spaces between railways. Such a plan was made in the 1880s.