Every route 99. 10 of 25.

Sunday 7th June 2026

Welcome to the first of this year’s summer seasonal uplift in blog postings with, once again, Sundays added to the timetable for the next three months. And as I’m a bit behind with my slow journey across the country exploring all of Britain’s 25 bus routes numbered 99, as always when there’s late running, it means there’ll be blogs running together to catch up time, so for the next few weeks, Sundays will bring a varied ride on a route 99 so I can get back on time as I head ever northwards to the end of year terminus of this series.

Having been in south Wales for the ninth outing on a route 99 this year, I’ve moved eastwards into Gloucestershire for journey number 10 of 25 to explore the Pulhams route of that number between Gloucester and Cheltenham.

This route 99 not only serves, as its main purpose in life, the hospitals in both Gloucester (Gloucestershire Royal Hospital) and Cheltenham (Cheltenham General Hospital) as well as two ‘Transport Hubs’ (Gloucester Transport Hub – aka bus station) and Arle Court Park & Ride, but also observes a few stops along the way as well as in Cheltenham Town Centre.

The route is funded by Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and runs half hourly between 06:20 and 20:50 but only on Mondays to Fridays with no service at weekends. The Trust highlights the service on its website calling it the “99 Shuttle Bus:” with a link to a dedicated page on the Pulhams website which has the timetable and map for the route as shown above.

Buses run limited stop with just nine stops (including the two hospitals) between the two termini providing an end to end journey time of 45 minutes which is comparable to Stagecoach’s 15-minute frequency route 94/95 between Gloucester and Cheltenham but not as good as its fast fifteen minute frequency route 94X taking just 28 minutes. Both these routes also run on Sundays (half hourly on each) and there’s also a night bus variant N94X.

The two locations really are very well connected and unsurprisingly this route 99 is very much geared up to serve the two hospitals rather than providing a Cheltenham-Gloucester service, although it does do that too. NHS staff enjoy free travel when joining the service at the Arle Court Transport Hub (aka Park & Ride).

The last two evening return journeys were added to the timetable in 2023 and I understand the NHS is exploring further expansion in both the evenings and at weekends. Bearing in mind many staff work shifts this obviously makes sense.

Pulhams introduced double deck buses on to the service in 2024 (as seen above) and this year is upgrading again with new Wright Streetdeck Electroliner buses.

I had a ride on the route on a lunch time journey last Thursday (12:35 from Gloucester) along with seven other passengers boarding with me at Gloucester’s relatively new Transport Hub, conveniently located opposite the railway station.

As well as the electronic departure board above the stand exit not woking there’s a large display on the wall behind showing all Stagecoach’s timetables but sadly nothing I could see for the 99.

First stop on the route after leaving the Transport Hub (aka bus station) is at the huge Gloucestershire Royal Hospital which is just round the corner where we arrived at the onsite bus stop just three minutes into the journey but then paused for seven minutes as the timetable allows 10 minutes between the two locations.

Three passengers alighted and five boarded.

There’s another stop around the other side of the hospital grounds in Wotton, where one passenger alighted and then It was out of the city via Longlevens (two more bus stops) before foot down for the three mile hike along the A40, including passing over the M5…..

… to the next stop at the relatively new Arle Court Transport Hub on the outskirts of Cheltenham as featured in a previous blog about Route 100 and where we arrived 15 minutes after leaving the hospital.

It’s then into Cheltenham passing GCHQ…

… and one stop in Benhall as well as passing the rather exclusive Cheltenham College…

… before reaching the spa town’s own hospital – Cheltenham General Hospital 15 minutes after leaving Arle Court and where four passengers alighted including two who had boarded at the Royal Hospital and were clearly NHS staff. We also passed the fourth of the four buses on the service which was a 17 year old former National Express West Midlands Enviro 400…

… which was in stark contrast to the very comfortable interior on the Streetdeck Electroliner I was enjoying, as were the other two buses on the service on Thursday.

I understand the new buses are gradually being rolled out into service but, as always with new battery/electric buses there are hiccups along the way prior to introduction.

After the General Hospital it was a twisty short ride…

… to reach the terminus at Clarence Parade where the remaining three passengers on board alighted.

It’s a great service for both NHS staff, patients and visitors and I’m sure gets busy at shift change times which is why the NHS Trust was keen on double deck buses replacing the Mercedes Citaros Pulhams that used to run on the route.

Another route 99 will feature next Sunday when I head further east and make a return visit to Essex.

Roger French

Did you catch the previous nine 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, 8 Tauton-Chard, 9 Pontypridd town circular.

Summer blogging timetable: 06:00 TThSSu