New York Today: Slow Train, No Train

Ángel Franco/The New York Times Trains will be few, far between and jam-packed on Metro-North’s New Haven line this morning.

Updated 10:11 a.m. | For the 40,000 commuters who take Metro-North’s New Haven line, the railroad’s advisory this morning offers a choice:

“Customers are strongly encouraged to stay home or should seek alternate service.”

Staying home seems like a pretty good idea.

Otherwise, the alternate-service thing is going to be a bit of a nightmare â€" probably for a while â€" after a power failure on Wednesday disrupted service on the line.

Metro-North has cobbled together a network of buses and diesel trains, but the service (see map or description) will be slow, infrequent, fragmented and very crowded.

And it can only accommodate a third of the line’s regular riders.

Some commuters can drive to a nearby Harlem line station. If you drive into the city, prepare for heavy traffic including in Manhattan, where the United Nations General Assembly is still closing streets.

Please tell us about your commute, in the comments below. Or on Twitter, with #TellNYT

“Found a replacement locomotive for tomorrow,” Michael P wrote to us, appending a photo of an antique train. “Runs on steam, goes well with outdated railcars.”

Here’s what else you need to know for Thursday.

WEATHER

In case you had forgotten what clouds look like, there will be some today. But also some sun, with a high of 72.

TRANSIT & TRAFFIC

- Mass Transit [10:11] Subways are O.K. Click for latest M.T.A. status.

- Roads [10:11] Clearing up in Connecticut. Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Watch for East Side street closings as the United Nations General Assembly continues. Click to see list. Or follow @GridlockSam on Twitter.

Alternate-side parking is suspended today and tomorrow for the Jewish holidays of Shemini Atzeret and Simhat Torah.

COMING UP TODAY

- On the campaign trail, Joseph J. Lhota does a live Web chat on Huffington Post at 1 p.m., cuts the ribbon on a restaurant in Queens and attends the Staten Island Republican convention.

- Bill de Blasio greets evening commuters at a subway station in Harlem.

- Former Mayor David Dinkins reads from his new memoir at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square. 7 p.m. [Free]

- “Alice in the Time of the Jabberwock,” a musical monodrama featuring a menopausal Alice, is presented by American Opera Projects at South Oxford Space in Fort Greene. 8 p.m. [Free, with reservation]

- Reading, with free noodles: Jen Lin-Liu talks about “On The Noodle Road: From Beijing to Rome with Love and Pasta” at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in Chelsea, and cooks. 7 p.m. [Free, with reservation ]

- “Tweet,” a show of art about birds, opens at the Children’s Museum of the Arts in SoHo.

- “See it Loud,” featuring work by seven American postwar painters, opens at the National Academy Museum.

- Foodies with $75 to spare: check out Prosciutto di Parma Palooza at the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg. 6:30 p.m.

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

IN THE NEWS

- The Tampa Bay Rays put the Yankees out of their misery, beating them 8-3 and eliminating them from the playoffs.

- A man was was fatally shot at a lighting company in Nassau County over a business deal gone bad. The gunman fled, setting off a manhunt. [The New York Times]

- For $2,000, Department of Motor Vehicle security guards and others helped drivers cheat on their commercial license tests, prosecutors say. [Daily News]

- A woman survived being pushed in front of a train at the Metro-North station in White Plains. A homeless man was arrested in the attack. [New York Post]

- Judging from Twitter, Hunter College High School is the saddest spot in Manhattan. [New York Times]

- The battles over the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn drag on. A judge awarded legal fees to lawyers who sued the state over the project’s timetable. [Atlantic Yards Report]

- A video peek behind the scenes at Christine C. Quinn’s unsuccessful mayoral campaign. [New York Times]

- The world twerking record fell yesterday in Herald Square (not Times Square, as we mistakenly reported earlier). [Fuse TV]

- What would be in a New York time capsule created today? [Gothamist]

AND FINALLY…

The children’s-violin bandit was on a spree.

More than 30 boys were waylaid on their way to music schools in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan in 1923 by a man who asked them to run an errand and offered to hold their violins while they did.

When the boys returned to the spot, the man had vanished.

Ninety years ago today, a 42-year-old Armenian embroidery worker, Adys George, was hauled before a judge.

Mr. George pleaded not guilty. He said he had never seen any of the boys before.

We have not been able to determine whether he was convicted.

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

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

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, e-mail us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytimes.com/nytoday.