North Tyneside is a difficult place to serve by bus because of the Metro. The only main line bus services from the coast seems to be the Coast Rd services as they they don’t follow the route of the Metro. The Coaster used to be more more direct but since Metro it now wanders around Walkerville, Fossway, Howdon and Marden, instead of using the main roads, same with old United services from the coast which ran via Shiremoor, Forest Hall etc. The old 346/347 from Whitley Bay to Newcastle ran every 15 minutes with double deckers or big single deckers. The equivalent service 51 now runs hourly, covering a lot of the same route but using mini buses. The old Tyneside route (313) ran every 10 minutes with double deckersvirtually in a straight line from Newcastle to North Shields, this has mainly disappeared, only the 11 from Wallsend to North Shields covers some of it. It generally follows the Metro and as Dan says, some don’t think they have to pay to use it!. As for the Little Coasters, yes they are needed by some people who don’t need to go to Newcastle and at certain times of the day they carry decent loads of passengers.