Every route 99. 1 of 24.

Saturday 24th January 2026

Welcome to a new fortnightly blog series for 2026 which as the above title implies will see me take a ride on all 24 bus routes using route number 99 across the length and breadth of Britain.

And if you’re a returning reader and puzzled by the change in the headline and in that first paragraph from the blog when first published this morning it’s because a commentator kindly pointed out I’d missed out a route 99A/C in my listing below.

As with 2024’s series featuring every route 100, I’ll be ignoring school day only routes and this time aim to travel in a logical geographical order from the south coast in East Sussex to the Far North town of Thurso as well taking in the south west, South Wales (Pontypridd) and East Anglia, the West Midlands, Telford, the Potteries, Yorkshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and the north east.

Britain’s 24 routes numbered 99 are operated by eight independent companies (including one Community Transport) as well as Stagecoach (seven), First Bus (four), Go-Ahead (three) and Arriva and Diamond Bus (each one). One of the 24 routes is contracted to TfL, another to Greater Manchester and another to Liverpool City Region with one being a summer only open top treat.

So, let’s begin with our first route 99 for 2026 which finds me on the south coast travelling on a busy workhorse of a route linking Eastbourne and Hastings via Pevensey Bay, Bexhill-on-Sea and St Leonards-on-Sea.

It’s operated by Stagecoach taking seven buses with the timetable implying four come from the company’s Silverhill depot and three from Eastbourne.

As you can see the timetable provides for a 20 minute daytime frequency, reduced to half hourly in the morning peak presumably to allow for traffic delays, and there’s an hour’s gap in the evenings. First journey in the mornings is 06:00 from Hastings and 06:20 from Eastbourne through to 21:00 and 20:45 for last departures. Sundays see a half hourly timetable between 08:00 and 20:00/21:00.

I took a ride from Eastbourne to Hastings on the 10:20 departure. The bus arrived on time from its previous journey at 10:09 and the driver waited a few minutes before opening the doors for passengers to board.

The departure stop is in Cornfield Road where there’s not much room for the number of buses laying over between journeys and indeed, the bus stop for the 99 was blocked by a Brighton & Hove bus on its Regency branded route 28 to Brighton, a recent addition to the network thanks to BSIP funding.

Route 99 on the other hand is a very long standing traditional route stretching back to Southdown days when, in the 1960s, for example, it was operated jointly with Maidstone & District to a half hourly frequency in the summer reducing to every 90 minutes in the winter with the first bus from Hastings not until 10:01. So much for bus service provision being better in ‘the good old days’.

We left on time at 10:20 with five on board and made good progress towards Pevensey Bay along the seafront road…

… and past the Sovereign Centre…

…making frequent stops at the many bus stops along this part of the route where we picked up seven more passengers and also dropped off seven meaning there were still just five on board although the number had risen to eight at one point.

That was the first 20 minutes of the 78 minute journey done as we passed over the level crossing and Pevensey Bay station and was very much in contrast to the next 13 minutes which took us on to Little Common with no stops at all along that five miles stretch of the A259.

At the rather delightful bus stop and shelter at Little Common we picked up five and as we continued through Birkdale towards Bexhill-on-Sea picked up 13 more passengers at four stops, as well as one alighting.

Another boarded as we passed the rather nondescript entrance to Collington station…

… making for our highest occupancy so far of 23 passengers before we lost one more but gained another three into Bexhill itself where nine alighted in Sackville Road and four in Devonshire Road both stops serving the town’s shopping area.

We were now five minutes behind schedule as five boarded and then turning right into Endwell Road alongside Bexhill’s railway station and a very traditional looking Crown Post Office which amazingly is still open…

… we came to the busiest bus stop of the jurney with 11 boarding including some with learning difficulties and two with mobility aids and carers with our driver making them all feel welcome as they sorted themselves out downstairs making for 31 on board, as three more joined at the next bus stop by the station itself.

It was then on to St Leonards-on-Sea with seven more boarding at three stops giving an occupancy of 38 but when we reached the large Ravenside Retail Park between De La Warr Road and the seafront I was surprised to see 15 leave us including those from Bexhill with their carers.

Next up was Glynde Gap with two joining and two leaving at three bus stops and by now we were 10 minutes behind schedule with 23 on board.

Not much custom in St Leonards itself with two joining and four leaving at two bus stops but when we reached Warrior Square on Hastings seafront (photographed above) three more boarded although two alighted.

As we continued along Hastings Seafront, three left us at the Pier, two at Robertson Street and 14 alighted at Harold Place by the shopping area leaving just three on board as we headed up to the bus station alongside the railway station arriving at 11:48 instead of the scheduled time of 11:38.

As I’ve experienced before at Hastings bus station, despite the good intentions of allocating routes to lettered bays for departures…

… it doesn’t seem to work out with buses blocking stands, so instead of stand B our driver pulled on to stand E with the nine waiting passengers wandering over and boarding impressively quickly with the driver heading back to Eastbourne on time at 11:50.

All told 66 passengers travelled during the scheduled 78 minute journey which is pretty good going and buses passed in the other direction seemed to be similarly loaded. My journey was a few weeks ago on one of the days between Christmas and the New Year when perhaps more people were out and about during the off-peak period and as you can see it was a gloriously sunny day, albeit very cold.

I noticed timetables were displayed at bus stops but a number of bus stop flags were still sporting the long forgotten WAVE branding once used for this and other routes along the East Sussex and Kent coast…

… although there was evidence these are gradually being replaced.

It’s obviously a successful route and one that is much improved on decades ago when the frequency was much less but it would perhaps be nice if some later journeys could be provided for passengers wanting to travel after 21:00.

A nice start for this new series though.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS