From Bill Lindelof, Robert Lewis and April Dembosky:
The Gold light rail line in the Rancho Cordova was back in service at 5:55 p.m. today, after thieves stole copper wire and brought train traffic to a standstill, authorities said.
Buses were ferrying passengers around the line from Hazel Avenue to the Mather Field/Mills station during the more than 12-hour shutdown.
The theft likely happened between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. today, said Regional Transit workers said Thursday afternoon.
The thief or thieves appear to have used a cable cutter to cut sections of wire near the train crossings along Folsom Boulevard at both Kilgore Road and Olson Drive. The wire carries about 750 to 900 volts of electricity back to a substation, workers said, meaning the theft was both costly and dangerous.
When the first train of the morning passed through the affected area, the fuses blew impacting signals and crossing gates.
The first maintenance worker arrived on scene at about 5:30 a.m. A crew worked through much of the day cutting new wire and making a patch.
Crews began repairing the section track affected by the theft of the copper cable at about 8 a.m.
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