(Photo: Emily St. Martin.)

What a terrible morning for Blue and Orange Line riders: service on both lines between Foggy Bottom and Federal Triangle was shut down due to a switch malfunction for about 20 minutes this morning. The two lines were split into two sections, though we’re now told that the split is no longer in effect and trains are running on a normal schedule. Meanwhile, DCist reader Emily St. Martin sent in this image of the small fire which broke out at Metro Center this morning — there was some confusion about whether the station was closed or open, but the issue involving the fire appears to be cleared up, too. (For what it’s worth, Metro called both of those delays “dire.”) The cherry on top: DCist’s Elisabeth Grant reports that a train operator recently announced that there was a sick passenger on the Orange Line at Courthouse.

To recap: traveling on the Orange and Blue Lines was a mess this morning. Then it was a bigger mess. And now it’s still going to be a mess, but not as much of a mess as it was a few minutes ago.