Assuming that when you say "the time" you are talking about the position of the sun in the sky, then yes it was.

Local time was determined by the local solar noon in towns and cities, which was great for setting your watch but was rough when you traveled.

And you didn't have to travel far. You change solar time by one minute every 10-17 miles traveled east-west, depending on latitude. Michigan, for example, had 23 different time zones. Ann Arbor was two minutes later than Detroit.

Railroads travel was especially complicated because when you read a train schedule all of the times printed would be the times of one specific city even though the stop was in a different city. For example a train might be running on New York time, and if you were boarding in Boston you would have to adjust by 16 minutes.