The nineteenth century could be called the railroad era. crews made up largely of immigrants completed the first transcontinental railroad on may 10, 1869, opening a nationwide transportation network that had a tremendous impact on business, agriculture, and labor. write an essay describing the impact of the railroads on other businesses and why the government attempted to regulate the railroads.

 It made the factories more accessible to get freight railed across vast distances reliable and to schedule. 
A manufacturer could say they could get something to you door to door almost in 7 days and you could rely on that instead of 10-14 days by horse and cart or longer. 

There are probably several reasons for Government regulations but one of the most obvious one was the Rail Gauge (distance between tracks). It enabled all of the rail companies build and use their own locomotives and rolling stock and use the same tracks rather than having to lay their own lines, or have bogie changing stations