Sunday 26th July 2026
From the South East, the South West, South Wales, East Anglia and the Midlands my slow but sure journey northwards checking out all Britain’s 25 bus routes numbered 99 brings me to the Potteries to travel on the fourth and final route 99 of the 25 which are operated by First Bus (check out the two operated by Ensign and Eastern Counties in previous blogs).
This one runs between Newcastle-under-Lyme and Chell Heath.
As you can see from the map the route serves a very urbanised area linking Newcastle-under-Lyme with the suburbs of Longport, Tunstall and Chell.
Here’s a Potteries network map from First’s website which shows the route’s context (shown in very dark green) within the overall conurbation together with its sister route 98 (shown in light green) which parallels the southern half of the 99 between Newcastle-under-Lyme and Longport.
But, of course, this isn’t the complete picture as there’s also a significant presence by D&G Bus in the area, so here’s First’s route 99 superimposed (in very dark green) on D&G’s network map.
From this you might just be able to make out much of the 99 runs parallel with D&G Bus’s route 94/94A (light blue) with the northern end of the route into Chell Heath also being served by D&G’s route 9A (yellow).
Buses run roughly every half an hour on Mondays to Saturdays (no Sunday service) on route 99 as do buses on the parallel 98 as far as Longport, but, this being First Bus, departure times vary by a few minutes each hour from both ends of the routes not making for either an even 30 minute headway on the 99 or even a 15 minute headway on the 98/99 combined section of route.
For example, from Newcastle-under-Lyme after departures in the morning peak on the 99 at 06:46, 07:21, 07:54 and 08:32 passengers enjoy buses leaving at 09:08, 09:47, 10:17, 10:47. 11:19, 11:49, 12:21, 12:52, 13:22, 13:54, 14:25, 14:57, 15:36, 16:15, 16:51 with the final Chell Heath bound bus as early as 17:30.
Obviously with such a precisely specified list of departures, no doubt generated by First’s expensive scheduling software, I was very much expecting the bus I travelled on when sampling the route recently to leave spot on time. After all, that’s the whole point of using these clever algorithms which supposedly take into account real life conditions to provide reliable and accurate timekeeping with no need for any experienced human involvement.
I arrived in Newcastle-under-Lyme’s from Stoke -on-Trent railway station, but unlike its neighbour in nearby Hanley, the fairly substantial bus station only offers basic shelters at each stand rather than a large purpose built structure with toilets and facilities. I’d allowed plenty of time to catch the 15:36 departure up to Chell Heath (no Tobermory type tightness here!) expecting it to probably be a busy trip with shoppers and school children retuning home with the previous journey having left at 14:57.
With buses arriving into Newcastle-under-Lyme from Chell Heath at 15:04 and 15:47 it was obvious the buses on the route interwork with another service which looked almost certain to be the aforementioned (not quite) half hourly route 98.
And, as you might have already guessed from the foregoing, 15:36 came and went with no sign of a bus on route 99.
As did 15:41.
As did 15:46.
As did 15:51.
As did 15:56.
By which time I was thinking I might give up on this route with the next departure not scheduled until 16:15.
A bus had appeared screened up for route 98 to Ball Green at around 15:50 which took most of the passengers waiting for the 99 as well as it’s own load and left on time at 15:56.
I noticed the side destination screen was showing “98 on diversion” which I thought might be explaining the non-appearance of the bus for the 99 if it did interwork and was coming into Newcastle-under-Lyme as a 98.
All this pontification then ended as to my surprise, 21 minutes after it should have left, a bus finally arrived screened up as 99 Chell Heath and 11 of us gratefully boarded and we left the bus station at 16:00 after which another passenger boarded at the first stop giving a dozen of us in total.
Not surprisingly it didn’t tale long for us to catch up with that well loaded 98 that had left just a few minutes ahead of us and that also explains why only three passengers alighted on the first half of the route as far as Longport – because they had all got on the 98.
Passing through Longport there were long queues southbound to the roundabout for the Middleport road…
… as there were for the approach from Middleport which might explain why buses were getting delayed, but surely the whole point of the expensive scheduling algorithm is that it would know about such delays which I suspect aren’t unusual for 16:15 on a schoolday afternoon.
After Longport we lost three more passengers alighting at Tunstall after which we stopped four more times setting down two and picking two up and once in the Chell area we just stopped four times to set the remainder on board down, leaving just myself and one other passenger on board for the final couple of bus stops, arriving at the terminus at 16:30 which, impressively, was only 11 minutes behind schedule indicating we’d made up 13 minutes in a half hour journey.
Perhaps the algorithm knew all along.
As the bus left Chell Heath for its return journey to Newcastle-under-Lyme at 16:30 (instead of the scheduled 16:25) I studied the timetable a bit more closely and realised while the journey at, for example, 12:31 from Newcastle-under-Lyme is given 32 minutes to travel to Chell Heath, the 15:36 has a 43 minute allowance – a 33% increase.
But, it had only taken us 30 minutes.
Work that one out.
Roger French
Did you catch the previous 15 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, 13 Lowestoft-Southwold-Halesworth, 14 Solihull-Kingshurst, 15 Telford-Shawbirch circular.
Summer blogging timetable: 06:00 TThSSu
BusAndTrainUser 
Question must be made of the Love Your Bus money supported 99 back in south east Essex of the South Woodham Ferrers To Malden segment being a “new” 99 being proposed in route by a couple of local councils en route for Stephensons to operated becoming bolted on to the 99 Malden Chelmsford Hospital (times unchanged) Woodham Walter council Love Your Bus enhancement to Essex council’s pared down one journey each way proposal that was going to be awarded I think to Central Connect if the parish clerks notes I recall correctly but then contract papers withdrawn before signing for Stephensons to operate the “old” 99 times too. IE is Malden South Woodham Ferrers enough uniquely new for Roger to re sample the route ?
As to the Potteries area of England all I can recall other than I think being the first MAP area after Midland Red’s VNP computer costing vs revenue programme, was the lunchtime return home of a lot of workers then back after lunch giving four peak flows a day. I assume the working day was built around how kilns were loaded fired and unloaded with the painting of decorative items being only able to be done at certain times , and the main products of WCs WHBs and drain pipes needed stacking in morning for delivered goods. Perhaps it is now worth checking some of the real time bus times (which seemed to get confused on one route in Malden where clearly the bus had not signed on correctly and marked as did not run for the first two stops, then marked as running late for the last two (which were the same as the route ran round one of the roundabouts in Malden to complete its journey to tesco).
JBC Prestatyn
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It’s Maldon not Malden.
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I wonder if anyone at First is willing to talk about how the new timetabling regime has worked out in practice? Perhaps, as long as the bus-tracking is working reliably, it doesn’t really matter, if passengers are mainly checking when and where the next bus is online rather than consulting timetables.
From the passenger point of view, and also if one’s main aim is to achieve maximum modal transfer, it would be better to run more frequent buses (at regular intervals rather than to a fixed timetable), but I don’t suppose that First’s ‘Keep the shareholders happy’ algorithm would allow that …
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I strongly suspect that online bus tracking does not work that well at the starting point of a service, especially when there is interworking with another route number. Something like RealTimeTrains would be needed, although that doesn’t seem to cope well with terminus stations either
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There is an excellent all operator Stoke buses map and guide from September 2025, but first some reason only available in paper form and not on line.
As for First’s £3m venture into AI scheduling , recent changes seem to have reverted to more normal running times and timetables so perhaps someone has actually realised it’s crazy. Only £3m down the drain, like the £2m Dft gave to a consultant to provide thoughts on what to do when the £3 fare scheme ends
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In re running times and timetables … what do we want? Reliable arrival times, or clock face timetables? THAT is the question!!!
With high-frequency routes, then the so-called AI programs are great … take a months-worth of data, summarise times between points (or even stops) and average them out. Result, a decent set of timings across the day that can be used for “then every 7-8 minutes” timetables. I used to do this with an excel spreadsheet … it took a bit of time, but I got there!!
Low frequency routes are a different beast … having an unmemorable “every 28-32 minutes” is no good to man or beast. Far better to have a set of “achievable” running times at a regular interval, with, if appropriate, some waiting time built in at important stops (and NEVER just before such a stop!!!).
Trying to make allowances for boarding a wheelchair (leave cab, deploy ramp, board passenger, replace ramp, re-enter cab) on every 56th trip is madness!! Attempting to achieve on-time at EVERY stop is impossible without building in so much padding that passengers get fed-up and stop travelling.
After all, the Traffic Commissioners guidelines allow for a “window” of -1:+5 minutes; simply utilise that when planning out timetables.
greenline727
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As a regular First bus commuter until recently, the AI-style timetables were a very welcome introduction. As I’ve said before, I don’t care about clockface, I care whether the bus runs, runs when it says it will, and connects well with my train, with my priorities being getting to work at a reliable time and having a reasonably efficient overall journey. When we had clockface timetables, reliability was atrocious (caused by schools and traffic at junctions), but after the AI introduction it improved massively as scheduling was planned better. We’re not all luddite fuddy-duddies.
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I totally agree that waiting should be done at key stops where people are more likely to alight and board, but it does rely on the stop being suitable for the bus to wait safely without preventing other buses stopping there, and without causing an obstruction to traffic or a visibility problem.
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More related to the “Tobermory” change modes times but looking at a couple of train times- and there have been YT comments and features on the SE London South Eastern Railnetwork inc Thameslink with the annoying 15min frequency on Overground via Denmark Hill and Peckham Rye but a half hourly Elephant Denmark Hill Catford one which arrives /departs Denmark Hill exactly same time as two of the Overground ones , thus Wandsworth Road to Nunhead Catford is a real pain having to leave at least quarter of hour earlier than one would like with a 10min wait at Denmark Hill. On sundays trains arrive Catford at 6min past the hour , there is a bus service onwards to interesting places but the stop is a bit of an uphill walk over the line at Catford Bridge to a stop that early morning to 959 depart at 11min past the hour, get to 10am and the time is 1007 which is impossible to walk. more joined up Swiss times needed even in the London Suburbs ?
JBC Prestatyn
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