Riders on one Metro-North Railroad line slogged through a day of snarled service on Friday, with promises of further disruptions into the weekend, as crews worked to clear a derailed freight train blocking the tracks near the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx.

For thousands of commuters on the Hudson line, which runs from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, the choices were stark, if almost universally unappealing: submit to a patchwork system of shuttle buses and trains, or opt out of the mass transit network entirely by driving to work or staying home.

In the morning, passengers could go only as far south as Yonkers, where buses were waiting to shuttle them to the Van Cortlandt Park subway station. There, the No. 1 train could take them to Manhattan.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates Metro-North, said the arrangement would continue through the weekend. But it “strongly recommended” that travelers make alternate plans, and on Friday, many riders seemed to wish that they had.