Every route 99. 20 of 25.

Sunday 23rd August 2026

Following last time’s review of the Bee Network’s route 99 between Manchester and Prestwich it’s over to neighbouring Liverpool City Region for my next exploration of all Britain’s 25 bus routes numbered 99 to find our 20th route in this series which runs between Whiston and Prescot. Here’s a regional map to show where Whiston and Prescot are located in relation to Liverpool, Warrington and Manchester.

This is the seventh route numbered 99 to be featured so far in this series that’s operated by an SME bus company. In this case by Link Network, also known as MD Bus and Coach. The St Helens based company is “a small family run business currently serving the boroughs of St Helens, Warrington and Wigan”. 

The route operates an hourly frequency from 07:22 to 19:13 on Mondays to Saturdays with no Sunday service. A round trip from Whiston to Prescot and back again takes 51 minutes and as the online timetable on MD Bus and Coach’s website advises it’s a round trip distance of 11.45 miles.

At the Prescot end of the route, after serving the bus station, the bus operates a clockwise circuit of a relatively new residential area before returning to the bus station and then retracing its route back to Whiston making for a nice straight forward link for people living in Whiston wanting to reach the shops and other facilities in Prescot as well as serving the large hospital.

As you can see it’s a route with quite a few twists and turns around the residential area, especially on the northern side of Whiston.

The terminal point is alongside Whiston railway station with a convenient bus stop in a turning area right outside.

I caught the 11:22 journey from Whiston, noting the arrival from the previous journey at 11:13 came in with no-one alighting and I began wondering how busy a late morning journey would get.

We started off well with four passengers boarding the Enviro200 bus as we set off and on the first section of route stopped seven times with nine boarding and two alighting (having only travelled a short distance).

After the ‘twisty-turny’ bit we picked up a further five at two more bus stops making for 16 on board as we reached the hospital and turned left on to Warrington Road which was an impressive number to be carrying.

It was one of those very friendly bus journeys with many passengers knowing each other and having a chat and a catch up as we continued along the route.

Three more passengers boarded along Warrington Road with four alighting and then we reached the first of three stops in the commercial centre of Prescot where nine alighted and two boarded and at the next bus stop, called the bus station (but is no more – just on street stops), two alighted and at the third stop by a large Tesco Extra, six alighted leaving just myself on board as a passenger from Whiston but I was joined by three new passengers even though we’d be back on the opposite side of the road to the Tesco store in five minutes having done the clockwise circuit of the new houses…

…which didn’t elicit any custom but is worth doing as I’m sure other journeys are patronised and there’s enough time in the schedule to allow for it.

Back at Tesco one more boarded and another did so at the next stop called the bus station, and that was it for the journey back to Whiston with all passengers alighting in the ‘twisty-turny’ bit leaving just myself on board to the terminus back outside the railway station where a relief driver had arrived from St Helens to enable a driver changeover for the afternoon.

It’s a useful and well used route for local journeys in this part of a well populated area and MD Bus and Coach are obviously doing a good job so it’ll be a shame if they are not able to retain the service as franchising comes to this part of the Liverpool City Region. Indeed in just two weeks time the first tranche of franchised routes begins with nearby St Helens being awarded to Stagecoach (and Go North West in the Wirral). Route 99 appears in the second tranche (based on Liverpool) with the successful companies yet to be announced so fingers crossed SMEs like MD Bus and Coach will feature and continue giving a great service to the residents of Whiston and Prescot.

Roger French

Did you catch the previous 19 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, 18 Barnsley-Denby Dale, 19 Manchester-Prestwich.

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