This is an awful lot of common sense and why I think they'll never do it. I also think part of the problem is the very "robotic" approach to social media, the app and customer service. It's a very broken system that badly needs a revamp.
I'm a firm believer in doing it from the depots so you have people responding who know exactly what they're talking about. On top of that, they'll be able to respond very quickly as they won't need to communicate with anyone else and they only need to cover one account and not loads like the team currently need to do in the contact centre.
I know our current network very well and even sometimes I'm not 100% sure of where a street is so I'd not expect someone in Leeds to know Glasgow and the surrounding areas inside out.
If this was to happen it would very much have to be at the local level and by that I mean depot, not the ivory towers of Caledonia Rd. Let's take a hypothetical situation. There are roadworks scheduled on Great Western Rd that will affect the 3 and 6a. A week before they are due to commence you let the passengers on these buses know what's coming.
The boffins at Caledonia Rd will suggest that you put a notice on the website but how many passengers would regularly check that. So, to make it more targeted, the next suggestion would probably be to stick a notice on the buses but how do you know what bus is going on what service. You don't so you put it on every bus in that depot. The problem with that is information overload and how many passengers would even look at it.
The easiest way to target your audience is to give them something they can take away with them as a reminder. Each bus is issued with them before going into service on that route so there is minimal waste - nobody on the 77 cares about the problems of Great Western Rd.
For me too much emphasis is placed on social media as a means of communication. Folks, like me, who don't do it would rather read a leaflet and I'm pretty sure that the social media junkies could stretch their imagination to this concept as well.
One thing is for sure, what First are doing now isn't working as well as it could so why not try doing something different. Life has taught me that sometimes the most simple of solutions is staring you in the face.