On the No. 7 Train, ‘Hello’ in Many Tongues

Dear Diary:

On one boring Tuesday morning, I was on the No. 7 train going to my classes in the city. People of different ethnicities, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian and others, eagerly shuffled to get a seat on the express train to Manhattan. Everyone had no energy, being sleepy. They were all just waiting for the weekend to begin again.

The train conductor came on and made a different announcement, instead of the usual “Seven express train to Times Square. Next stop Willets Point. Stand clear of the closing doors please.”

He said: “Hello, good morning. Hola! Ni hao! Anyoung haseyo! Shalom! Namaste! Seven express train to Times Square. Next stop Willets Point. Stand clear of the closing doors please.”

Just like that, he brightened everybody’s day.

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New York Today: After Derailment, Best Options for Commuters

Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times In Yonkers, shuttle buses await commuters.

Good morning on this soon-to-be-sunny Tuesday.

The commute will once again be challenging for many because of the fatal derailment of a Metro-North train in the Bronx.

Here’s what you need to know:

Commuters who sought alternatives on Monday mainly seemed to flood the roadways.

That caused significant congestion on highways in the Bronx.

Expect that again today.

If you are driving, consider other options.

Metro-North’s damaged Hudson line ends at Yonkers for now, and the railroad is running shuttle buses to the first subway stop in the Bronx.

About 7,000 extra people rode on Metro-North’s neighboring Harlem line.

But only about 2,000 people used the shuttle buses on Monday. That’s a fraction of the line’s 18,000 morning-rush riders.

The Yonkers shuffle takes time.

It means waiting to board a bus, waiting for it to fill up, a 15-minute ride to the Bronx and then a subway ride of perhaps 40 minutes to Midtown.

But at least you avoid driving in traffic.

The Hudson line train from Yonkers normally takes half an hour to get to Grand Central.

So tell us: How are you getting to work today?

Whether or not you take Metro-North, was your commute affected?

Let us know in the comments or on Twitter using #NYToday.

WEATHER

A little warmer as morning clouds part for the sun. High of 51.

COMMUTE

Subways: No delays. Check latest status.

Rails: Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.

Roads: No major delays. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking remains in effect till Christmas.

COMING UP TODAY

- City Hall-watchers await a possible announcement from Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio on his choice of police commissioner. Former Commissioner William J. Bratton is the leading candidate.

- Mr. de Blasio visits a children’s-services center in East Harlem.

- Mayor Bloomberg makes an announcement at a high school in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

- Lights, action: The city’s first outdoor movie studio since the 1930s opens at the Kaufman Astoria complex in Queens.

- Dr. Ruth Westheimer, America’s sex therapist emeritus, is M.C. of the Bronx borough president’s Hanukkah celebration at the Bronx courthouse. 1 p.m. [Free]

- A six-day J. Crew sample sale begins at 10 a.m.

- Politico relaunches Capital New York, the political-news site it acquired in September.

- Trend-ology, an exhibit on the history of fashion trends, opens at F.I.T.

- Billy Joel plays Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s 56th-birthday fund-raiser at Roseland Ballroom.

- A Sierra Club photo exhibit, “Encounters With Nature,” opens at the Calumet gallery on West 22nd Street. [Free]

- Robert K. Steel, the departing deputy mayor for economic development, talks about the city’s economic prospects at Roosevelt House. 6 p.m. [Free]

- A one-man version of “Christmas Carol” opens at the Merchant’s House Museum in the East Village. 7:30 p.m. [$37.50]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- Mr. de Blasio tweaked Mr. Bloomberg for not showing up at the site of the train crash on Sunday. [New York Times]

- An ethics panel appointed by the governor found corruption still rampant in state politics and recommended sweeping changes to election and campaign finance laws. [New York Times]

- The red fox that escaped from the Staten Island Zoo last week has been returned to captivity. [NBC New York]

- There is now a Super Mario Land version of the city subway map. [Gothamist]

- Scoreboard: Rangers fall to Jets, 5-2. Canadiens beat Devils, 3-2.

AND FINALLY…

An unexpected sound was heard in the media thicket on the bluff overlooking the Metro-North crash site on Monday:

The tapping of walking sticks.

The local chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club had happened on the scene.

Around 20 hikers picked through coiled cables, past news vans with satellite poles extended.

One of them, Carol de Onis, said they had not come to gawk.

“We planned this a long time ago. We were going to see Spuyten Duyvil,” she said. “We didn’t know it was going to happen.”

Spuyten Duyvil is one of the city’s wilder spots, where steep slopes run down to the Hudson and Harlem Rivers.

Ms. Onis gasped when she gazed down at the wreckage.

“I ride that line,” she said.

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

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