The 1A/1B are not really designed for direct journeys to the Metrocentre and can't imagine many would be willing to do the full route... the reason for the route taken to the Metrocentre is the 1A/1B were basically combined into one (variation aside) through route from previous routes that ran to offer better connections from the Lobbley Hill area previously offered on the 96 > 11 and I think the 95 as well into Newcastle and the Metrocentre, doing this will have most likely reduce operational requirements and costs whilst also offering better connections for passengers.

The reason for the 'Little Coasters' branding is the services are seen as a sub network to compliment the main 'Coaster' service as the services meet and have connections avaliable with service 1A/1B in places along the route, the same is being done elsewhere within GNE like the Little Pinks somewhat being the Washington sub network linking in with the 'Connections 4' service which is now also pink.

I'm guessing the reason for Solos being allocated to these routes is that's what reflects the number of passengers using the service(s) so they're hardly gonna put deckers on just for the craic although the 19 has been increased to single deckers again although unsure if this is a permanent move or not? Although I do feel it was a bit of an injustice to take the Solo SRs that were originally acquired for these services off and allocate them elsewhere leaving these services with older and lower spec replacements although the X20 is losing it's Solo SRs so there's a chance they *may* end up back there (no clue what the plan for those are yet).

I can't add any further comments in regards to the routes as I don't know the services and the areas they operate in too well.