Every route 99. 11 of 25.

Sunday 14th June 2026

After completing the five bus routes numbered 99 in Wales and the South West in last Sunday’s blog, with a ride from Gloucester to Cheltenham, it’s back over to the South East with a return to Essex to feature the second of three routes numbered 99 in that county and the second to be operated by Ensignbus (see the Tilbury Town circular already covered) as well as it being one of two seasonal open top routes to be found in the list of 25.

Welcome to the Ensignbus operated route 99 linking Leigh-on-Sea, Southend and Shoeburyness. Now under the auspices of First Bus so it’s good to see this route still going strong compared to the sad demise of all First’s open top services in Cornwall and Exmoor.

However, this year’s operating season for ‘Southend’s 99’ is somewhat restricted with it only running in the school half term holiday in the last week of May and the seven week holiday period between mid July and early September. It doesn’t even venture out at weekends during June and early July. I’m sure the previous regime at Ensignbus would have done so.

I took advantage of the record breaking blistering heatwave during the Spring Bank Holiday week to take another ride on the route for a topical update on what passengers will find this summer and, aside from the reduced dates of operation, it’s very much business as usual.

It was the Tuesday after the Bank Holiday that found me on a packed c2c train full of day trippers from east London and Essex heading down to the Mecca that is Southend-on-Sea for so many people in this part of the World.

A visit also always brings back fond childhood memories for me too, as we regularly took a family holiday in Shoeburyness in the early to mid 1960s where an Aunt lived and we swapped houses each summer for a week or two. Visits to the Kursaal, train rides down the Pier, paddle boating on the lake, games of putting, building sandcastles on the beach and boat trips round the ‘Mulberry Harbour’ as well as a real treat – an open top bus ride under the low bridge at Southend Pier on Eastern National’s route 68 are all engrained in the memory. Sadly the famous Kursaal is not what it once was.

Despite a rich heritage it is only in recent years route 68 made a comeback running between the Kursaal/Southend Pier at the eastern end through to Leigh-on-Sea at the western end.

Bizarrely it was Go-Ahead London who resurrected the service in 2017 using open tops based at its Northumberland Park bus garage in east London but after three years and the intervention of Covid in 2020 that operation ceased due to a shortage of drivers leading to the ever enterprising Ensignbus to pick up the mantle and run it that summer and every year since.

In 2024 the 68 was joined by a new route 99 running from Shoeburyness along the seafront to Southend Pier where it connected with buses on the 68.

The Spring Bank Holiday weekend that year also brought a bonus in the form of a heritage bus running day on the routes.

After that initiative the 68 and 99 were combined into one route for last summer’s season, which, fortunately for this series of blogs, meant the numbered 99 ruled supreme not least because it offered sponsorship opportunities with Rossi’s popular ice cream parlour on the seafront …

… as the four buses used on the route are all decorated in four different coloured liveries representing four different 99 ice cream flavours.

There’s a printed timetable leaflet giving details of the route, times and ticket prices and it’s great to see a First Bus associated company realising the value in such marketing collateral…

… with plentiful supplies available on board the buses…

…which confirms the span of day is from around 09:30 to around 18:30 with a half hourly frequency for the roughly 50 minute end-to-end journey including a five minute pause by the famous Pier where there’s a turnover of passengers not wanting to make the full length journey.

There’s also the long held tradition of a spare open top bus on the stand on the south side of the sea front road to attract attention together with a member of sales staff who moves the protective road cones aside every half hour when the next bus rolls in for its five minute pause…

… although the stop is now also served by Arriva’s new route 1X every half hour. The traditional ‘A boards’ promoting the service are also placed at bus stops along the route, including the eastern terminal point at Shoeburyness East Beach has shown below.

I boarded a late morning departure from the terminus outside Leigh-on-Sea railway station with six others on board and another six joining just before we set off.

Concessionary passes reduce the day ticket from £7 to £6.30 with those aged 5-15 paying £6 and there’s a £25 group ticket for up to five people travelling together. Single journey tickets are also available.

The route includes a clockwise circuit of the seafront roads at the western end of the route and heading into town the bus picks up in Leigh-on-Sea’s busy commercial area with more passengers joining.

The route passes Chalkwell railway station and then passes under the low railway bridge to reach the seafront road which it follows all along to the Pier.

We did some more business at the stops along the seafront…

… with passengers boarding and alighting and the Pier saw all but a group of six and a family of four alight. The latter stayed on board all the way to Shoeburyness…

… and the group of six returned on the same bus as it headed back to Southend after its 18 minute layover period.

You just can’t beat an open top bus ride along a seafront road and Southend’s seafront was made for this type of operation. It’s made perfect sense to run a cross city route from Shoeburyness to Leigh-on-Sea and I just hope First Bus keeps the faith and allows it to continue and prosper – and with the benefit of localised marketing and control too.

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 Taunton-Chard, 9 Pontypridd town circular, 10 Cheltenham-Gloucester.

Summer blogging timetable: 06:00 TThSSu