The steam locomotive allowed for the transportation of goods at a much more rapid rate than by horse. The railroad let people know exactly where and when goods would arrive. The trains also gave the cargo a safer ride as it was much more difficult to rob a train than a horse drawn transport. As more railroads were built, products could travel farther than ever before in a timely manner. This brought down the cost of freight transport and increased profits for many businesses.
Just five years after the first freight was pulled, the first passenger train ran pulled by a steam engine. This sparked an even greater need for more rail lines, as people were interested in traveling at a faster rate of speed. The railroad cut travel time by approximately 90%. This opened up a whole new world for people as many could travel to areas never before within reach. The safety of train travel also encouraged people to travel more often and opened up a whole new world to women who in the first half of the 1800s very rarely traveled without an escort.
The ability to provide goods to distant areas in an expedited manner let people settle more remote areas. No longer were far out locales a subject to famine issues --- if crops died more food could be brought in via the rail. Manufactured goods had a greater reach so people did not have to make long trips back and forth to urban areas in order to acquire basic goods. Trains could pull mass amounts of goods and people only had to go to the train depot in order to pick up goods or purchase things from the local mercantile supplied by the train.
The locomotive created jobs in many ways. First, people had to build the railroad track for the train to travel on. As the demand increased, more and more track was laid in order to service a greater area. Second, as more people had access to goods, factories could sell manufactured products to a greater number of people. This increased sales and the demand for product allowing the companies to hire more people. Third, more trains were constantly being built. Both the cars and engines had to be made and supplied to places all over the country.
