[1] A transportation article explained why railroads helped create standard time zones. [2] Before time zones, towns set clocks by local noon, so time changed from place to place. [3] Train schedules became confusing because arrival times depended on many local clocks. [4] Railroad companies adopted a shared set of time standards so schedules could be consistent across long routes. [5] This change supports the claim that rail travel pushed society to coordinate time more precisely. [6] The article also notes that governments later made the zones official.