Imberbus 2024

27/08/2024 Ashleigh Sinclair Event, Features

Jonathan Taylor reports from the annual Imberbus event in Wiltshire, which raised over £34,000 for charity

Here’s a fun thought. Can senior, vastly experienced bus industry figures run a simple bus service between a few villages for only one day? Given the added advantages of running the service on closed military roads with little traffic, other than the rest of their buses in the 40-strong fleet to contend with, no traffic lights, no cyclists, no weaving taxis, no ‘zones’ and an endless supply of fare-paying enthusiastic passengers (concessionary passes not accepted), what could possibly go wrong?

CBW’s chance to find out was a beautiful mid-August day in central Wiltshire, the perfect setting for this year’s Imberbus event. It is a one-day-only vintage bus service running from Warminster (Wiltshire) station into Ministry of Defence (MoD)-controlled Imber village area of Salisbury Plain, this year on Saturday 17 August.

My wife Sarah and I arrived only 10 minutes after the 9:30am scheduled start time. But by then, the streets of Warminster, for well over a quarter of a mile from the station bus stops, were full of excited visitors queuing, waiting their turn to board a bus to Imber village. We only had time to spend a maximum of four hours at the event, so this was a great start for Imberbus, but a slow one for us.

If measured by passenger numbers, it was already clear that Imberbus 2024 was going to be a huge success and hopefully improve on last year’s record-beating total of nearly £38,000 raised for charity.

There were lots of volunteers on hand trying to make the day go smoothly. John Batchelor walked along the queue line making sure everyone had one of the handy, informative event guides for the day. Now retired, John had 45 years working on the buses in London and he helps out at Imberbus each year.
The queue moved quite quickly and we finally got on a bus to set off out of Warminster and up into the wilds of the surrounding downland military area, opened just for the day by the MoD. Our driver was Angus Morton and our conductor was Richard Kemble (retired from local government and London buses). Our bus was a 1959 ex-Bristol Omnibus Bristol LD with a Gardner engine and it ascended the steep rise of Sack Hill to the downs with a successful spell of first gear 5mph work. No graunchy changes, well done Angus.
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