I worked Good Friday on the Metro buses and the contrast to today couldn't be more stark. I'm not sure whether you could throw too many resources to 'variable' destinations such as Whitley Bay which saw excessive demand on Friday. I did the same shift today as I did on Friday... 1049 and 1204 from Shiremoor ... Friday loaded 50 & 73 people, today those numbers were 16 & 14.
On Friday the Coaster buses were also struggling to cope with the loadings, they could have done with deckers allocating given the forecasted weather. Traffic problems were killing everything in and around Tynemouth & Whitley Bay on Friday while there were no such problems today.
Of course there is an argument for improved services although I would add only between 10-11 and 3-4 the main shopping times, outside of those times the cost would outweigh the revenue.