Vintage DEMU and bus to uninhabited village of Imber

ONCE a year there is an extensive vintage bus service to the lost village of Imber on Salisbury Plain, and this year passengers will be combining the bus with a vintage train – the Hastings DEMU.

The annual ‘Imberbus Day’ is on August 17 and UK Railtours has chartered the Hastings unit No. 1001, which will start its journey at Tonbridge (07.30), calling at East Croydon, London Waterloo (reverse), Woking and Basingstoke running via Salisbury to Warminster.

Here passengers will transfer to a fleet of around 25 Routemasters and other vintage buses for the journey to Imber.

The event has become so successful, services now extend beyond Imber to the villages of Market Lavington, Tilshead and Chitterne, plus other remote locations on Salisbury Plain, including New Zealand Farm Camp and Brazen Bottom.

On the return, the Hastings unit will head to Waterloo and Tonbridge via Romsey and Southampton. Fares are £129 standard class adult (£107 junior), with first class nondining fares at £159.

The fare includes an Imberbus rover ticket permitting travel to a variety of destinations on the day. More information will appear at imberbus.org in due course.

Online booking is open at www.ukrailtours.com or book by calling 01438 715050.

Imberbus started in 2009 when a group of bus industry professionals achieved an ambition to run a vintage bus service from Warminster, Wiltshire, to the village of Imber which was abandoned in 1943 for D-Day training and has since remained under MoD control.

The annual event raises money for the British Legion and towards the upkeep of Imber Church, one of the few buildings to survive intact.