Thursday 7th May 2026
I’m still in the south west for this latest route 99 adventure and it’s an absolute stunner.
Operated by Hatch Beauchamp based (seven miles south east of Taunton) Hatch Green Coaches, the route connects the Somerset market town of Chard with the county town of Taunton via some delightful villages.
End to end journey time is a handy 55 minutes with the one bus allocated to the service offering an 08:30 arrival into Taunton (continuing on to serve Somerset College) with a 17:05 balancing return journey. In between those times a daytime two-hourly frequency leaves Taunton at 08:50, 10:50, 12:50 and 15:00 with departures from Chard at 09:50, 11:50, 13:50 and 16:00.
The same timetable (minus the College extension) applies on Saturdays and there’s no Sunday service.
The route includes a lengthy deviation around a residential area in the north of Chard thereby providing a local service (albeit not very frequent)…
… then serves the villages of Combe St Nicholas, Buckland St Mary and Staple Fitzpaine on the journey to Taunton…
… making for a particularly scenic section of route.
I had the pleasure of travelling on the 12:50 from Taunton and 13:50 return from Chard on a recent Thursday which turned out to be a glorious late April Spring day with sunshine and blue sky – ideal for enjoying Somerset’s scenic delights.
Thursday is Farmers’ Market Day in Taunton although the number of stalls is sadly few in number these days but it may still influence off-peak shopping traffic.
We left Taunton with an impressive 21 passengers including five students who boarded a few stops into the journey at Kings College.
Five passengers left us at the next three stops as we left the town but once crossing over the M5, save for one more passenger alighting shortly afterwards, the remaining 15 on board travelled all the way through to Chard with no takers for the delightful villages we passed through.
The smart one year old Enviro200 was a pleasure to ride in with a well kept and clean interior and I was impressed to see a dispenser behind the driver with timetable leaflets available too.
As we began the wander around Chard’s northern residential area, stopping four times, we picked up three passengers making the short journey into the town centre arriving at the terminus in Boden Street just a few minutes ahead of schedule.
There was a driver changeover and I took the opportunity to take a look at the facilities for passengers and, oh dear, they didn’t look good.
Two filthy bus shelters marred by graffiti with an empty timetable case, although more positively, once again Hatch Green scored bonus points for having its 99 timetable prominently displayed and easily readable making for a good example of how to do it.
I’d noticed these were displayed throughout the route too so well done Hatch Green.
Hopping back on the bus for the 13:50 return journey to Taunton I was joined by 10 passengers five of whom just travelled home locally in Chard where we picked three more up, and then it was a similar story to the southbound journey, with seven of the eight passengers travelling right through to Taunton and the eighth alighting in the charming village of Combe St Nicholas and more splendid Somerset scenery to savour along the way.
On arrival in Taunton the driver screened up ‘Not in Service’ so I don’t know whether that means another bus and driver is sceduled for the next southbound departure at 15:00.
A lovely journey, beautiful countryside, charming villages, a quality bus operator and what seems to be a supportive local authority. It’s just a shame about that bus shelter in Chard.
My favourite route 99 journey so far.
Roger French
Did you catch the previous seven blogs in this series? 1 Eastbourne-Hastings, 2 Petworth-Chichester, 3 Woolwich-Bexleyheath, 4 Tilbury Town-Tilbury Ferry Terminal, 5 Chippenham-Swindon, 6 Ubley-Chew Valley, 7 Exmouth-Brixington-Exmouth.
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
BusAndTrainUser 
I like the links to Google Maps and what3words on the online timetable to show exactly where the bus stops are.
Mike Best
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Like Mike above I’m impressed by the links to maps showing bus stop positions. For many people, bus travel is a total mystery. Every effort like this will help potential new customers. It’s all a no brainer really, but so many operators haven’t got it yet.
The timetables themselves are excellent examples of simplicity and clarity. If there isn’t a prize for good timetables, there should be one!
I did check some other other routes timetables. Route 99 seems to be a leader in terms of map links, as the two I looked at didn’t have them. Let’s hope it’s just a matter of time before revisions can incorporate them too.
The website has links to fares for each route too. I didn’t check one, but that’s another vital piece of information for potential new users. Well done Hatch Green for being upfront about them.
Starting the article I did wonder about that 55 minute journey tinev
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Sorry about that unfinished sentence above, but WordPress froze on me. (That happens rather too frequently).
I was going to say that, reading on, I spotted the trick that Hatch Green had applied, the local Chard extension to the route. Very sensible and cost effective, judging by the local passenger numbers that Roger reports.
Stuart S
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I did spot one typo. There’s a Char in there, the “d” having flown off somewhere!
Stuart S
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It’s flown back now, Stuart.
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One might like an evening out service on this , but realistically the days of the cinema bus have gone and local attractions for local people form the evening ents in many rural towns. Other than that come on local govt with the bus stop cleaning (can this not be easily added to road sweeper team tasks ? ). Agreed with a clear , we presented and simple timetable. Not sure if it goes local that an early arrival should be praised , depends what is specifically advertised at the local stops and maybe a couple of mins padding to the final stop ?
Noted on the OS Map . Dismantled Railway. Which rather speaks volumes about Chard, a SWR line exists with a name not exactly Chard friendly a few miles away. Having said that summer holidays swapping from the LSWR service to the West Country to car ended up with one incident – I think losing an exhaust, on the main road near Chard becoming the only cause to enter the town, maybe I should return , tail section of exhaust removed placed in back of car and carried on to destination Cornwall where we stayed with relations
JBC Prestatyn
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A size of vehicle that looks like it could get to Mousehole Harbour . Perhaps in that area if the main route so busy could have a bit of self competition with a Harbour service running maybe 8 min behind outbound – catching up near destination – with leaving 1 min early as express Harbour only service at least during summer months.
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The smallest E200 is too big to get to Mousehole Harbour.
ADL
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Many thanks for this cheering report. It is a lovely part of the UK: I know it quite well, as my parents lived there about forty years ago. In those days, the hourly 30 bus was still the main connection with the outside world, and it was a very pleasant walk to their house just north of the town from the nearest 30 stop. Luckily the 30 called at Axminster at a time not too remote from the 2-hourly train from Waterloo – and then picked up passengers from the (closed) Chard Junction station! The new 99 would have been a blessing for my parents, as it goes past the end of their lane. Forty years ago there was a 2-hourly bus from Chard just to Combe St Nicholas – to get all the way to Taunton would have been great!
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Thanks Roger – always discovering amazing bus routes. I wish there was good publicity beyond the local area for things like this. Just think of all the people who, if they knew about it, might catch the train to Taunton and make a return to Chard this approaching sunny Saturday.
Do you ever get any feedback on whether your pages cause an uptick in passengers? If the 10.50 this Saturday from Taunton leaves with standees, then that might suggest so!
(CH, Oxford)
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Thanks Chris, but I don’t think I’ve reached the dizzy heights of being a “social media influencer”just yet!
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Time for a bit of history here…
Historically, the local service in Chard was the 224 that ran to Combe St Nicholas – I think latterly it was renumbered to 34 (?) operated by a single Southern National minibus. The Chard to Yeovil (via Crewkerne) service was the 61 and was eventually thrown in by First, picked up by Stagecoach who outbased a pair of vehicles locally.
However, rural bus challenge funding enabled a massive uplift with Stagecoach drafting in new Optare Versas and an hourly frequency with a new extension to Taunton to form the 99 (Yeovil – Crewkerne- Chard – Taunton). Over time, the funding declined and the two halves were disconnected so the eastern half became the 96 (eventually moving to South West Coaches). The 99 was taken on commercially as a reduced service (broadly same as now) that was eventually deregistered by Stagecoach as they exited the area, then taken on First (BoS). They eventually threatened its withdrawal, migrated to a tender and then lost it to Hatch Green.
The scenery is delightful and whilst they have tried evening and Sunday services in the past, they simply don’t have the trade to justify them.
BW2
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Very many thanks for the detailed history.
‘They don’t have the trade to justify them’ – no, I’m sure they don’t, under the rigid ‘big bus company’ accounting rules, which evaluate routes solely on the money they take, ignoring any extra revenue which could be generated for other bus routes, and even for rail services. Perhaps, now that the current government appear to be interested in integrating public transport better, the big groups may change their minds – but the signals – as reported by Roger – make it look as if they are more interested in filching revenue off one another – which is definitely not justified overall, financially!
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Thoroughly enjoyed this report, Roger – I was lucky enough to spent the second half of my childhood growing up not far from this route (and coincidentally went to school at what is now the Richard Huish College which is listed as one of the stops) and your trip brought back many happy memories; as others have mentioned, it’s a lovely part of the country to be in. It’s good to hear that the service was fairly well patronised on the day of your trip.
Just a minor typo – the second mention of Combe St Nicholas in the report has the ‘e’ missing from the end of ‘Comb’.
To add to the history of the route above, according to the Western National timetable for 1969/1970, there were 3 return journeys on Mondays to Fridays (4 on Saturdays) on the 224 between Taunton and Chard, so it’s good to see that link restored and being used all these years later.
Paul.
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Thanks Paul; errant ‘e’ now added.
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Using the excellent Timetable World, you can see the 1983 timetable and the link to Taunton had gone by then, reduced to the local service that I remember in the 1990s. The same timetable shows Buckland St Mary getting just a daily service in the morning to Taunton (and evening return) whilst Staple Fitzpaine had that and a couple of Thursday market runs. I’m guessing that the through route when in the big cuts c.1971?
BW2
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A gorgeous part of the world, and you picked a nice day to visit.
Lovely clear timetable, with plenty of supporting information. However, given that the CD and NCD timings are identical for 99% of the route I do wonder whether it is helpful to duplicate the whole columns. Would it not be simpler to just have one column for the full journey and mark the two college timings with a footnote ‘Runs to/from college on college days only’.
Chris Jackson
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Certainly this 99 is a very nice ride, but I was a bit surprised at your final comment relating to a ‘supportive local authority’. I am a fairly regular visitor to the East Devon area, and I get the impression that support for buses in Somerset (and Dorset) is inferior to that in Devon. Chard is a town of over 15000 people, and I reckon you would be hard-pushed to find a town of that size, and with no railway station, with a worse bus provision. Along with the 99, there is the more direct 30 to Taunton via Ilminster with 10 journeys a day, 8 of which also extend south to Axminster (with its station). There are 7 journeys weekdays (reduced to 4 Saturdays) on service 96/A east to Crewkerne and Yeovil (again with stations, but in each case on the edge of town). And that is it apart from one or two College journeys, and there are no buses at all on Sundays (but until recent BSIP funding to provide a limited service on one town route, there were no Sunday buses in the much bigger Somerset town of Yeovil). The only evening buses are a couple of journeys from Taunton on the 30.
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I’ve noticed that Hatch Green drivers are very quick to put up ‘Not in Service’. No good thinking you’ll get a shot when the bus arrives at its destination whilst the pax disembark: by the time you’ve lined up your shot it’s already showing ‘Not in Service’. Frustrating.
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