From the discover of The New World up until the time America was fully settled in the early 1900s there was a distinct correlation between the settlement of new lands and economic prosperity. The railways opened up thousands of miles of new land for settlers, encouraging immigrants to develop the new land via the agriculture and manufacturing industries. Many important North Amerian towns started as mere railway stations. The building of the railways happened after the Industrial Revolution, and the easier the transportation of goods like coal was concerned, the better. The creation of the railways also required a significant workforce, which gave jobs to many immigrants (Considering their working conditions that can be seen as both a positive and a negative). The negatives that I can think of, at least in terms of America's perspective, is that the creation of the Canadian pacific railway was promised to British Colombia in exchange for the province joining the confederation of Canada. The creation of the railway united Canada via the railroad ensuring parts of what are now Canada did not end up a part of America (Note: The American railway did the same to unite the U.S. states). Perhaps the worst negative is that, with the expansion of Europeans across the country, the Native Americans who had retreated west were faced with America's official policy to 'remove' Indians from their land. Many were forced to retreat, were moved to reserves, murdered, or forced into assimilation; their way of life was officially decimated in a matter of decades.

the negative effects were basically about the fact that farmers lost their lands for building railroads. The rairoads also entered into formal agreements to fix prices,which kept farmers in their debt.