Imberbus 2023

 19th August 2023

I made my annual visit to Salisbury Plain to ride bus route 23A, and I was far from alone! Imberbus has been running since 2009, taking passengers from Warminster railway station to the “lost” village of Imber and on to other villages around the edge of the military training area. I have been before and wrote about it here, here, and linked to a video here. It has become more popular as the years progressed and this year exceeded the expectations of everyone - including the organisers I think.

Last year there was a national rail strike coinciding with the event so I drove down and made a weekend of it, staying two nights at Market Lavington which is on the bus route. It was uncertain whether this would be the case again for 2023 and I considered doing the same but hotel prices had risen considerably and in the end the trains were running - sort of, more on that later.

 

 Half an hour later than planned due to a late running train from Reading missing the connection at Westbury I exited Warminster station, crossed the road and bought my £10 ticket (from none other than Baron Hendy of Richmond Hill himself perchance) and joined the queue for a bus to Imber. Ah yes, the queue. I queued for around 20 minutes. Later in the day the queue reached somewhere between an hour and three hours depending who was reporting on it. Rumour also has it that the manager of Lidl, whose shop and car park were entirely encircled, had a bit of a sense of humour failure and threatened to call the rozzers!

 

 At Imber I alighted for a bit of photography and a look around again. There was a very long queue for the church but I’ve seen that before so didn’t join it. Imber is often called a lost village but more truthfully it was stolen by the Ministry of Defence on behalf of the US Army in 1943 and never given back to the residents. For a few days of the year the roads are opened to the public to visit - mostly to give access to the church - and on an August Saturday opened just for the buses. After a while I joined the lengthening queue for a bus to the interchange “bus station” at Gore Cross. In previous years it was possible to be choosy about which buses you rode with obviously the classic Routemasters and RTs being preferred but it became obvious that with so many people this year it was going to be a case of just getting whichever came along next.

 

 Gore Cross is the hub of Route 23A, a windswept gravel patch in the countryside through which almost all the buses pass. For that reason it’s a top spot for taking photos and for MWLB. The buses approach via a narrow track from the public highway and circle around to one of stops A, B, C, or D depending on their destinations. Brazen Bottom (always gets a snigger) and The Lavingtons, Tilshead and Chitterne, New Zealand Farm Camp, or back to Imber and Warminster. I milled around for a bit watching the comings and goings and then the excitement occurred.

 

 The convoy of buses leaving Gore Cross stopped. The last bus reversed back up the track. Something had obviously gone tits up down at the junction of the tracks where the buses turned right towards the road. A busload of passengers walked back up to the bus station and a lot of others walked down to find out what had happened.

 

 What had happened was that a New Routemaster had fallen in a hole. A combination of a tight turn and an 11m bus whose driver didn’t quite swing wide enough and had dropped the rear offside wheel off the concrete and into the soft verge where it quickly dug itself a cosy little home. There was of course a bit of jollity and piss-taking from both onlookers and other passing drivers because this is England and such is traditional. It was apparent that LTZ1009 was going nowhere without assistance from the recovery truck which is always kept on hand for Imberbus at Gore Cross. It was also fortunate that buses could still get in and out via an alternative track while the stricken bus was winched out of the hole and eventually returned to service.

 

 It’s not the first time I’ve seen a New Routemaster come a cropper at Imberbus, in 2018 one dived into a large pothole in the car park at Imber and grounded the low-slung front, rendering it unable to go forward and unable to go backwards without very expensive sounding noises from beneath. Good for accessibility but they don’t have the ground clearance or approach and departure angles for off-roading!

Once the excitement was over I got a proper Routmaster to Chitterne to have my late picnic lunch and a very nice cup of tea from the village hall which derives much of its annual income from Imberbus visitors and more importantly has one of the few available toilets.

 

 At Chitterne I decided that it was getting on in the day and that I should start heading back towards Warminster to get a train home (Ha!) but first I wanted to do the loop via Brazen Bottom and the Lavingtons, a pleasant run through the country with some pretty steep hills, always interesting in a Routemaster. My ride for this journey would be AEC Routemaster RML880 registration number WLT880. There being no room up top I opted for the longitudinal seat over the rear wheels on the grounds that I wouldn’t have my knees jammed up against the seat in front. This area also tends to be where the other bus drivers and owners gather so it’s where the interesting and informed conversations happen. Not to mention quite a bit of banter.

 

 There is a timetable for Imberbus but this had gone somewhat awry early on due to the sheer number of passengers to be loaded and unloaded and not helped by the incident at Gore Cross. From Chitterne we headed to Tilshead. Well almost Tilshead as the driver forgot to turn right so the couple of passengers who wanted to get off there had an unexpected chance to stretch their legs from just outside the village. Then to Gore Cross where there was to be a driver change which we were assured would enable us to make up some lost time on the loop out through Brazen Bottom, Market Lavington, West Lavington, and back to Gore Cross before continuing to Imber and Warminster. Staying on the same bus at Gore Cross and at Imberbus on the way back was a good choice as the queues at both places were still very long.

 

 RML880 deposited us right at the head of the line of buses outside Warminster Railway Station ready to get the train to Westbury or Salisbury depending on final destination.

Except.

There weren’t any.

Not wanting to be outdone by Imberbus GWR had decided to mount their own attempt to win the Longest Queue In Warminster Championships. I and many others should have been able to catch the 1730 to Westbury but it was cancelled due to a shortage of train crew. As was the 1803. And the 1833. And some of the trains to Salisbury. The next train to Westbury would be at 1903. If it didn’t get cancelled before then that is and then there would be the fun of trying to get four train loads of passengers onto a two coach train.

I joined the refugees at the bus stop in the Market Place along with some surprised locals to get a Stagecoach D1 to Westbury where hopefully there would be a train to Reading. That train was late as well resulting in a long wait for a connection at Reading so I joined the usual Saturday night Reading Station ritual of a can of lager on the platform while I waited. I arrived home somewhat after 10pm.

 So what about 2024? Assuming it goes ahead I doubt that I'll be trusting GWR to get me there and back. There has been some suggestion that managing the number of passengers by using pre-booked timed tickets but that would detract from the whole hop on hop off go as you please nature of the event. Being able to roam about all day stopping for refreshments, taking photos, or a pint in a pub is one of the event's great attractions. Given the unreliability of the train service being on a fixed schedule would make getting there even more stressful. 

In spite of the travel issues I still enjoyed my Imberbus experience, it’s a quite barmy idea so I’ll see you there next year, maybe.

Here’s the photos that I took on the day, on Flickr