Every route 99. 13 of 25

Sunday 5th July 2026

Welcome to Suffolk’s only bus route numbered 99. After last time’s exploration of the infrequent rural route 99 between Maldon and Chelmsford in Essex, I’ve moved north to Lowestoft to sample First Eastern Counties’ route 99 to Kessingland and Southwold together with its sister route 99A from Southwold to Halesworth.

A nice colourful timetable and route map showing the route’s Coastal Clipper branding is available on the First Bus website and gives “BUS TIMES from 26th May 2024” which looks like it’s a pdf of a printed leaflet but sadly I was unable to find copies to pick up – I suspect the stock was snapped up by eager passengers long ago.

There’s one of those “guaranteed connection” arrangements in Southwold between the 99 and 99A with the same bus operating both routes pretty much as if they are one although on the journey I took recently the 99 emptied out completely on arrival in Southwold before continuing on to Halesworth.

A half hourly service is provided on the busiest section of route between Lowestoft and Kessingland with alternate journeys continuing hourly to Southwold and then across to Halesworth. As you can see from the timetable below, the route doesn’t allow for much of an evening out in Lowestoft. Indeed, the last journey leaves Lowestoft for Southwold as early as 17:10 with another half an hour later to Kessingland at 17:40. Sundays sees just five journeys.

Similarly the last bus from Southwold to Halesworth is at 17:02 with no Sunday service but there is a school day journey that continues to and from Bungay.

I’d have thought a route along the coast like this would have potential for attracting leisure journeys particularly on Summer evenings so it’s a shame there isn’t an evening service which probably has a knock on effect on daytime loadings. I wonder if the County Council considered using its BSIP funding for such an addition.

My journey began in Lowestoft bus station which isn’t one of the most welcoming places to wait for a bus…

… with a long closed Travel Shop, Lost Property collection point and public toilets. “BETTER journeys for LIFE” never did quite resonate as a slogan and the adjacent Britten Shopping Centre is a sad shadow of its former glory days as the missing letters in its name sign indicate.

The bus manoeuvring area in front of the stands has a generous space, albeit at the expense of a very narrow and constricted waiting area for passengers by the shelters and although it’s nice to see information available at each stand including a map from Suffolk County Council dated September 2023…

… and a more recent one from First Bus dated September 2025…

…it’s a shame the ‘attention to detail’ doesn’t extend to affixing the departure lists so they don’t slide to one side…

… or the other.

Or, just stick an update on top of an out of date display, such as seen below for “coastlink” branded routes X2, X21, X22 to Norwich; all of which gives the impression of a rather slapdash approach.

While waiting for my Coastal Clipper branded 99 at 11:10 I noticed a bus wearing a smart livery bearing this branding arrived on route 1/1A that heads north from Lowestoft to Gorleston, Great Yarmouth, Caister-on-Sea and Hemsby (as well as Martham)…

… and a “coastal reds” branded (“Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft regular local links”) single decker on a local town service 101…

… before my bus arrived from its previous journey from Halesworth and Southwold sporting a bright red front splash…

… for Norwich city routes 23/24.

Obviously any confusion from these brands will soon be a thing of the past with the much hyped First Bus corporate livery and there’s no doubt the impressive intake of new electric buses into Norwich has understandably led to the cascading of branded buses to other areas pending a repaint but in the interim it must all be a bit befuddling for passengers.

An impressive high teens number of passengers alighted from the bus as it parked up on the stand at 11:07, four minutes down, but with an efficient change of drivers, a change of the destination display to show “99 Southwold for 99A to Halesworth”...

… and some slick boarding of the 13 waiting passengers, we were away at 11:13 only to join a queue…

… awaiting the swing bridge to close having let a leisure craft with a tall mast pass from the Inner Harbour to the Outer Harbour.

After that delay of around four minutes we were able to cross the water and begin our journey south picking five more passengers up and dropping two off at five local bus stops in Lowestoft, including at the town’s pier.

After that, two passengers alighted and one boarded at the Gateway Retail Park on the southern outskirts of the town and then it was foot down towards Kessingland passing the bus behind us heading into Lowestoft, this time in all red livery.

The circuit of Kessingland saw seven passengers alight with no one boarding nor did any further custom come as we continued to Southwold with one more passenger having alighted in Reydon. As already mentioned everyone else got off in Southwold as we changed into a 99A picking six new passengers up for that leg of the journey.

The nature of the route to Halesworth is rather different to the fast pace journey from Lowestoft to Southwold along the A12.

Parts of the route are quite narrow in places…

… and the village of Wenhaston with its church looked particularly attractive…

… as did another church just up the road in the hamlet of Blyford…

… although its pub looked a bit more frequented than the church.

After that it’s a short ride to Holton just outside Halesworth…

… and then the tour of Halesworth itself before returning back to Southwold and Lowestoft. Two of our six passengers alighted in Wenhaston but otherwise that was it for the journey.

Roger French

Did you catch the previous 12 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, 12 Malton- Chelmsford.

Summer blogging timetable: 06:00 TThSSu