Every route 99. 12 of 25.

Sunday 28th June 2026

Well, this route 99 is a bit of a quirky one. It’s the third such numbered bus route in Essex to be featured (following the Tilbury Town service and Southend’s open-top bus route) and exists to provide a very limited link between Maldon and Chelmsford via, as I found on my journey, some delightful Essex villages.

I’m grateful to Bill Hiron of Stephenson’s who kindly gave me a brief history of the route, as on the face of it with just two journeys a day in each direction, one as early as 07:00 from Maldon and the other at 11:15 with return journeys from Chelmsford’s large out-of-town regional Broomfield Hospital at either 15:30 and 17:30 it doesn’t seem to offer much choice for aspiring passengers.

Bill explained “the 99 was built up by Arrow Taxis in Maldon who sadly went bust a couple of years ago. We ran it for a while until it went under tender” which was won by Konectbus, now part of the expanding Central Connect empire. However, Bill continued, “we take it back from Central Connect in the latest Essex County Council (ECC) tender round from the end of July, albeit on a much reduced timetable – an am peak journey into Broomfield Hospital and a pm peak return”.

Bill added the 84 minute route “didn’t meet their (ECC’s) usage criteria of £5 max subsidy per passenger journey” so hence the reduction and withdrawal of the off-peak return journeys, albeit this reduction leaves around 80% of the cost in situ with the peak journeys still running!

It turns out the recent journey I made to sample the route was timed fortuitously as I was easily able to get to Maldon to catch the 11:15 departure – it wouldn’t have been so easy to get there for the 07:00 journey once the 11:15 disappears next month.

As you can see from the timetable, the bus departs from Maldon’s ‘Tesco Store’. It’s one of those huge Tesco Extra affairs with much more retail space than supermarkets really need these days, and it was good to see buses get fairly close to the action with a dedicated bus stop along the side of the building necessitating only a walk along the whole length of it to the entrance at the other end.

There’s an electronic departure board…

… as well as printed departure lists, and although there’s no bus shelter there is a covered walkway where Tesco has helpfully provided one seat for waiting passengers, although it’s difficult to see all the buses coming and going from where it’s positioned.

Having arrived at Tesco in good time at 10:45 I kept an eye on the Heddingham branded Enviro200 which had been standing doing nothing for all the time I was waiting thinking that might well be the bus for the 11:15 derparture now Hedingham, Konectbus, Chambers etc are all part of Central Connect.

But as the time reached 11:15 and the driver who’d been sitting inside made no attempt to set the destination screen I began to doubt my original thought. Then after a First Bus arrived I noticed what looked like a Konectbuses branded minibus pull in right behind it so rushed over to see if that was it.

And it was.

The driver wouldn’t open the doors until the First Bus had departed and she then pulled forward to the bus stop flag and let me on. Although it was now past 11:15 we didn’t set off immedately but despite waiting a few more minutes no-one else joined so eventually off we set.

And the first section of route was a double run north from Tesco up towards the Heybridge part of Maldon…

… then back past Tesco and into Maldon’s commercial retail centre where I noticed we were not due to leave until 11:27 whereas it had only taken less than five minutes to do the double run so I realised why the driver didn’t rush to leave Tesco as we sat it out in the town centre for more minutes.

It wasn’t long before we were in the lovely Essex countryside…

… and made the first of many stops to wait time. Yes. it’s another route with a generous time allowance. We were due at Brook Farm about three quarters of a mile away from Maldon’s High Street at 11:31 so waited there for a minute then on to Woodham Water where we paused again and this time I took the opportunity to have a chat with the driver and take a few photographs of the lovely village setting.

The driver wasn’t as pessimistic as I about whether we’d see passengers join us further along the route, and sure enough, her optimism was well placed as further along in Woodham Water a passenger was indeed waiting for us.

She uses the bus to do shopping in Chelmsford and although she would prefer to go to Maldon she accepted the restricted offering even though it meant a wait in the town centre until 15:45 for the journey home. She did mention she heard changes were on the way but didn’t know the details and I’m sure she’ll be devastated to hear her journeys are the two being axed. Without a car she relies on this bus to get the things she needs in Chelmsford.

Meanwhile our careful driver was taking us along the narrow roads through this part of Essex…

… as we headed up to Little Baddow served by another double run, before heading south towards the village of Danbury where another passenger joined us to go home in Sandon, 10 minutes further along, with some shopping so I’m not sure how he’d made the outbound journey as the only options were the two that ran the previous afternoon.

Another passenger joined in Sandon and as we got closer to Chelmsford, where local bus routes also provide a service, two passengers were picked up in Great Baddow with all three and the passenger from Woodham Water alighting in Chelmsford town centre leaving just myself on board for the 10 minute journey to Broomfield Hospital which is also served by First Bus local routes. However, one passenger did join us at the bus station for that final section of route making for six in all.

Broomfield Hospital is a huge complex with a large bus station area at the front right by the main entrance. It was originally the site of a sanatorium but in 2010 had £148 million spent through a private finance initiative and although is not ideally located, being on the edge of town, I was impressed with the level of bus service provided including long distance routes diverting in to serve it too.

But as for the 99, it’s presence there is a bit anomalous as is the new timetable from the end of next month where the marginally costed off-peak journeys are being ditched. What a shame.

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, 11 Leigh-on-Sea-Shoeburyness East Beach.

Summer blogging timetable: TThSSu