UPDATE (2:05 p.m.): Bus routes 6, 14, 17, 21, 23, 52, 56, 59, 66, and 79 will resume service at 3 p.m. and continue to operate until 10 p.m., SEPTA recently announced. Please follow SEPTA on Twitter (@septa) for further announcements.

SEPTA has announced that all buses will be suspended beginning at 10 a.m. until further notice. All other modes of transportation will continue to operate and TransPasses may be used as payment on any other SEPTA route.

Twenty-five to 30 buses got stuck this morning as snow turned to freezing rain. The city declared snow emergency at 8 p.m. on Wednesday.

A fire in an electrical box below the westbound platform at the 46th Street El Station caused a temporary Market-Frankford line service interruption this afternoon, according to SEPTA’s spokesperson Andrew Busch. The fire was reported around 3:50 p.m. and was quickly contained by responding fire crews. No injuries were reported.

During the train service interruption, shuttle buses transported passengers between 52nd and 40th Streets. The train service was resumed around 4:40 p.m.

Due to routine maintenance work, Trolley Routes 11, 13, 34 and 36 will be diverted to 40th and Market Streets, starting at 5:00 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 24 through 5:00 a.m. Monday, Nov. 25, according to an advisory released by SEPTA. Route 10 Trolleys will be diverted to 40th and Filbert Streets.

During this time, passengers can transfer at 40th Street to the Market-Frankford Line for travel to and from Center City. For more information, visit: http://www.septa.org/.

SEPTA has unveiled a very cool subway car today – it is fully wrapped with a colorful mural! The project is a collaboration between SEPTA and the Philadelphia Mural Arts program. This moving mural is titled “We Are All Neurons” and was designed and created with the help of local students participating in the Mural Arts Local Emerging Artists Projects (LEAPs). The students worked with the mural artist Benjamin Volta to “visualize their own brains as interconnected idea machines.” They drew hundreds of neurons, and they worked together to design a colorful vinyl wrap for a subway car.

The car with the “moving mural” was launched this morning at 69th St Transportation Center and will be used on Market-Frankford line so we hope you’ll be lucky to see it and ride in it.

SEPTA announced this week that it is expanding wireless service to many more stations, including most along the Market-Frankford and Broad Street lines. Today SEPTA launched free WiFi access at the 69th Street Transportation Center used by thousands of people every day.

SEPTA is partnering with Comcast on this thing (in exchange for some free advertising), so the WiFi is Xfinity. People who already subscribe to Xfinity just need to log in as usual. Non-subscribers should click on the Xfinity network on their device and follow the prompts.

Other stations where you can use WiFi include Market East, Suburban, 30th Street, Temple University, and University City. The rollout of free WiFi at all the stations on the El and Broad Street lines will take up to two years, according to a press release. WiFi will also be expanded to regional rail and airport train stations. It seems like it won’t, unfortunately, be onboard trains and buses. That’s OK, SEPTA has bigger fish to fry – like making sure it actually stays in business.

SEPTA also announced the release of a new app. It is pretty good, but it doesn’t go much further than the better third-party transit apps available (though it looks better). The app includes current schedules for all trains, trolleys and buses and up-to-the-minute info on regional rail. Using GPS, it will also list the closest stops etc. One not-so-intuitive thing is that when you want to return to the main menu of transit options, click the transit symbol (the trolley, bus, or train) in the upper left part of the screen (see screen shot).

The app is only available for the iPhone as of today, but we’re told that an Android version is in the works.

– Mike Lyons

Beginning Monday, July 1, SEPTA’s fares are going up. The new price plan includes the first increase to the cash fare since 2001, from $2 to $2.25. The discounted single trip fare (token) will be $1.80. Transfers will remain $1.

As you may already know, SEPTA is working on the New Payment Technology (NPT) program, which will come into effect next year. NPT will eliminate tokens and introduce a SEPTA-branded card that will be available for purchase at all transit stations. In anticipation of the program SEPTA is also simplifying fares by eliminating extrafare zone charges on dozens of transit routes and consolidating zones on Regional Rail. In addition, gender stickers will be eliminated on all passes for transit and Regional Rail. The gender sticker system was highly criticized for its discrimination against transgender passengers.

The cash fare will go up to $2.50 in 2014 when the switch to NPT is complete. The next scheduled fare increase will be in July 2016.

For more information about the fare changes, including a breakdown of all fares and related modifications that will go into effect July 1, visit this special section on SEPTA’s website.