If you made it into work this morning, you might be somewhat relieved to know that Metro has partially restored service on the Blue, Orange, and Silver lines between the McPherson Square and Federal Center SW stations this afternoon. Thousands of commuters were delayed by the derailment of a train without passengers outside Smithsonian around 6 a.m., which rippled through the transit system.

Trains are now single-tracking after Metro re-railed two of the three derailed cars from the no-passenger train. The Orange and Blue lines are running in both directions but “running less frequently than normal,” bypassing both Federal Triangle and Smithsonian. (Those stations remain closed.) The Silver Line is only operating between Wiehle-Reston East and East Falls Church; riders commuting between D.C. and Virginia must transfer to or from the Orange Line at the latter station. In a press release issued before 2:30 p.m., Metro says single-tracked “trains will run in one direction for approximately 15 minutes, and then the flow of traffic will be reversed to run in the opposite direction” for roughly the same amount of time. Shuttle buses are operating in a continuous loop among four downtown stops.

“Metro crews continue work to complete re-railing work at the site of this morning’s derailment,” WMATA’s announcement states. “A cause has not yet been determined.”

The Washington Post reports that a problem at a track-change area, called an interlocking, could have been behind this morning’s derailment. “It could be a problem with the infrastructure of a switch, it could be rail car related, it could be human error. Right now we don’t know the cause,” Metro spokesman Dan Stessel told the Post. There were no injuries in this morning’s derailment.

On Twitter, some commuters resorted to humor to get them through their morning odysseys:

We humbly suggest going to happy hour for a bit this afternoon. Maybe try some craft beers.

Image by WMATA