Every route 99. 18 of 25.

Sunday 9th August 2026

This is the second route numbered 99 in South Yorkshire (check out last time’s journey between Doncaster and Retford) and despite what I (mistakenly) initially wrote in that blog about that being the only one to straddle two counties – this one does too.

It’s also another route 99 that’s a bit of an odd ball in that it only runs on a Saturday offering three return journeys which in reality comes down to just two journey options for passengers. It links communities in the Denby Dale area of West Yorkshire across the border to Barnsley in South Yorkshire.

Skelmanthorpe alongside its newer smaller neighbouring villages of Lower and Upper Cumberworth are the most western extremities of the route and along with Denby Dale itself are served on an anti-clockwise loop arrangement.

The route taken into Barnsley via Clayton West and High Hoyland also gives those two communities a link to Barnsley with the buses passing over the West and South Yorkshire boundary between them.

Next up in South Yorkshire are Kexbrough and Darton but both these see regular buses to and from Barnsley whereas the 99 is the only link to that South Yorkshire metropolis from the other places listed.

As you can see, the timetable offers journeys into Barnsley on Saturdays every 90 minutes at 09:30, 11:00 and 12:30 with return journeys from Barnsley Interchange at 10:25, 11:55 and 13:25.

I opted to travel on the middle of those three, the 11:55 departure, when sampling the route in glorious weather a few Saturdays ago.

I was impressed to see clear signage in Barnsley’s generously proportioned Interchange with its plentiful stands and parking area conveniently located right next to the town’s railway station which lovers of integrated transport will be delighted to see is also called Barnsley Interchange.

Although it’s now 19 years old, opening in 2007, the Interchange still looks good with free to use toilets, lots of information on display including a colourful network map and details showing departure stands by bus route number and route numbers by destination.

It was evident from this that three or four of the higher numbered stands are no longer in use…

… so it was a bit odd to see route 99’s departure at 11:55 coincides exactly with the same departure time of another route (the 37) on stand 14.

Luckily that bus departed on time at 11:55 (with no one on board) with the 99 yet to appear. It was due in from its previous journey at 11:47 but didn’t appear until 11:57.

While waiting I’d counted 13 fellow passengers sitting patiently for the bus and it was obvious they are regular users of this service and all knew each other.

When the bus did appear as they all got up to board it was also obvious they all knew the driver – he told me he’s a regular driver of the route which is operated by South Pennine Community Transport.

Being a 16 seater it was quite cosy on board for the 14 of us with most having shopping bags too and the driver explained he’d “broken three bigger buses recently so they’ve given me a smaller bus now to drive”.

It wasn’t clear how he’d “broken” them whether by mechanical failure or some form of crash but although it was tight with a 16 seater, some of the narrow roads we travelled along made it an appropriately sized vehicle.

However one more passenger with shopping joined us in Darton who squeezed (literally) into the back row of four, next to myself and two others, but luckily he was only going a short distance to High Hoyland where also the first of the ‘Barnsley 13’ alighted too.

It was lovely to see everyone saying farewell and good wishes to everyone else as they alighted and you got the sense of a real community feel about the journey.

The 12 left on board alighted in Clayton West (2), Skelmanthorpe (7), Lower Cumberworth (1), and Upper Cumberworth (2) leaving just myself on board as we headed back to Barnsley.

The driver certainly did a good job (foot down all the way) at making up time on the round trip with the five minutes we were late leaving Barnsley all made up by the time we reached Clayton West 25 minutes later but then in Scissett he stopped the bus and stepped off to make a phone call for three minutes about something to do with the bus.

But, foot down again, and we were soon making that time up too, such that on the way back into Barnsley we stopped for another two minute pause in High Hoyland where the views across the South Yorkshire countryside towards Penistone were superb.

I had a chat with the driver during this pause observing how busy the journey had been and he explained that was nothing compared to the earlier journey into Barnsley where he’d had a full standing load and had to leave people behind, although he didn’t say whether they had alternative options or were in the unique route 99 only section of route.

That bigger bus is obviously needed.

On the way back into Barnsley we picked up two passengers in Clayton West (I’m not sure how they were going to get home again) and one in Kexborough, with six more on the well served main road into Barnsley.

Back at the Interchange the driver loaded up for his final journey at 13:25 with eight passengers ready to board indicating that inbound journey had probably carried around 22 passengers.

A well used and popular one day a week shopping service that’s clearly appreciated by everyone using it.

Roger French

Did you catch the previous 17 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, 16 Newcastle-under-Lyme-Chell Heath, 17 Doncaster-Retford.

Summer blogging timetable: 06:00 TThSSu