What was one drawback and one benefit of the railroad? One drawback is that building a train cost more money than what the railroad companies could recoup. One benefit of the railroad was that an average ticket only cost a passenger $1,000. One drawback is that it took time and money to lay track for the railroad. One benefit is that people could travel much more cheaply by train than by horse and wagon. One drawback is that the railroad was invented before the steam engine. One benefit was that messages could be sent faster than ever before. One drawback is that it took the railroad less time to deliver goods than ever before. One benefit is that it was cheap to produce a railroad system