Great Western Coffee Shop

Now announced as 19th August 2023. format as last year with Imber being car free

Pictures to follow.  Utter overcrowded at Warminster. Lovely buses though Not even trying to get to Imber because I've got to be home for family and by the time I get there it would have been time to come back!

Now if we could run the Imber bus to MELKSHAM Station at the other end of its route ...

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/bqmn20230819.jpg)

More to follow.   More buses to follow too because they'll never all fit on there.

"HOLIDAYMAKERS are set to return to an abandoned village in the UK, and they'll be making their way there on red double-decker buses." Article in The Sun (https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/23446676/imber-wiltshire-tourists-once-year/) which also refers to "tourists"and a town hall!

My daughter WAS going to Imber - until she saw the queue  !!!!!

The queue appears to snake round the Argos car park then along the road outside (Fairfield Rd) then joins Station Rd (extreme left of photo) and (turns rt) up to the station bus stop !!

(https://i.postimg.cc/3NxfKpkV/Imber.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)

Imberbus were recommending a lunchtime start. This'll be why

Realtime Trains showing a *lot* of cancellations at Warminster.

Nothing in the Salisbury direction for the two hours between 16:14 and 18:10 - and the 18:10's two carriages.

Also, nothing west from Warminster between 17:01 and 19:05 (which at least is listed as 4 carriages...)

Mark

Ianvisits photo from Twitter showing the up platform at Warminster a little before the first train in two hours, itself slightly delayed, called.

Mark

https://twitter.com/ianvisits/status/1692949536463839382

Around 11:00 in the morning the queue was 315 metres and still growing in length (about 350m by the time it disappeared out of sight behind Argos. From the 315m mark, it was about 45 minutes to boarding a bus.

I was lucky. Arrived back at Warminster in time for the 1703 departure (the Portsmouth to Cardiff) which was on time and 5 coaches. While all around were cancellations...

GWR twitter advised 3 carriages on the Cardiff to Portsmouth, Realtime trains listed it as two. Running 20 minutes late it arrived into Salisbury but broke the intended connection into the 6 carriage Exeter-Waterloo train, but passengers heading for London have had only a 20 or so minute wait for the next, starting from Salisbury (though it's another three carriage set).

At Warminster, looking ahead, two sequential Cardiff trains cancelled, so, no through trains to Cardiff between 19:02 and 22:03. There are a couple of others as far as Worcester and Bristol, mind.

Mark

I got to the end of the queue at 11:50, and got onto the first bus at 13:15. But an incredibly good-natured queue.  And a great day out.

3 trains in a row got canned south of Westbury, two to Salisbury and one Portsmouth leaving a gap of two hours. Small wonder the platform was absolutely packed.

You certainly were, the next train was the 1903 with three in between services cancelled, two from Salisbury and one from Portsmouth.

Other Cardiff to Portsmouth trains also cancelled or running short in both directions this evening. As Taplow Green remarked earlier on another thread, it’s hard to tell the difference between an overtime ban day and a ‘normal running’ day at the moment  ::)

Wonderful trip to Warminster yesterday seeing the old buses headed up to Imber.  My plan was to have brief trip onto the plain, get a cup of tea in the church and briefly say "hello" to friends there. But alas "brief" was not possible and the queue snaked down station approach and around the corner into the retails park, with reports over an hour to wait to catch a bus.  Also great reports of good humour in the bus queue and all around, and I still got a chance to meet friends also watching the queue - some joining it, some giving the plain a miss, and one driving.  Good to catch up with you all.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ibd23_01.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ibd23_02.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ibd23_03.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ibd23_04.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ibd23_05.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ibd23_06.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ibd23_07.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ibd23_08.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ibd23_09.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ibd23_10.jpg)

I understand one New Routemaster managed to ground itself taking a tight turn on the plain.

I had made tentative plans to head to Warminster for Imber yesterday but my experience with GWR & SWR trains on the previous two Saturdays rather put me off.

After yesterday's abysmal performance by GWR at Warminster there must be a lot more people sharing your view of the rail companies. TEN cancellations after 4.30 pm !!!

Two theories I have heard circulating about why this year's event was a bit too busy:

One is that the event featured in the national daily papers;

The other is that social media may have spread the event widely.

Of the two, would social media be the harder to predict the outcome?

It's been building numbers for a few years now....the problem will be how to prevent even more (through word of mouth even if you don't look for media coverage - hello Paul @ BBC) and preferably lose a few....

I’m sure GWR’s woeful efforts last evening out of Warminster in both directions would have caused a few to say ‘never again’ so that might help with the numbers next year.

Today hasn’t been any better on the Cardiff-Portsmouth line.

Good to see the Londonline bus, I had heard rumours that Reading Buses would contribute.

Looks like I made a good call to go elsewhere, but there was crowding there, not quite the same scale on the Hamble ferry!

For all the overcrowding, the organisation of the Imber Bus is exceptionally well done and the volunteer team that was there show just how well it can be done.  I have little doubt that there will be a wash-up analysis with a view to learning from this year in thoughts of next year.   As I never got to Imber nor the other access points at the further side of the plain, any suggestions I might make are likely to be of limited value, but I do wonder whether a pre-purchase of tickets and a second extra starting point (23B) in Warminster High Street for those ticket holders might relieve pressure at the station, where the vehicle shunting is more challenging than perhaps desirable.  I also wonder whether prebooked incoming vehicles in the morning / back in the evening could serve other stations such as Frome, Melksham, and perhaps either Grateley or Andover.   Pewsey tempting but not sure the station area could handle the buses. Westbury tempting but too attractive to the crowds in amongst the normal operations there.  Dilton Marsh - err - no - Single door, nowhere for buses, ...

I'm sure that the Warminster traders in their High Street would welcome (not) queues of Imber fanatics blocking access to pavements & shops all morning?....

Have you asked them? 

No, and neither have you?

Agreed, but I didn't say "I'm sure", did I?

Bit of a double edged sword probably.  When they closed the bus station in Salisbury, the bus queues were then moved to the shopping street pavements. The camera shop I use, in Endless St (opposite the old bus station), said that some of their regulars moaned about about trying to get into the(ir ?) shop - but that the shop now had an almost day long "captive audience" outside the front window.

The queue didn't get as far as the High Street. From the station, down Station Road and then into Fairfield Road. The entrance to the Lidl car park was stewarded, with small groups being allowed across when it was safe.  And then into and round the edge of the Argos car park.

A bus-enthusiast friend of mine drove from Berkshire to Warminster and found the parking there to be chaotic with long queues all day, and he never got to ride on any buses, so "a complete  waste of  time". Last year he went by train and had problems with engineering works.

I wonder what was the motivation of all  those who did turn out? Was it the bus-fest (understandably, not that I'm an enthusiast)? Once one gets to Imber, there's not much to do for the average "holiday-maker" or "tourist", as envisaged in the Sun. Hopefully there were plenty of portaloos?

My first visit was c1962. (I don't think the "modern" breezeblock buildings had been built then, though the Baptist Chapel still stood.) Since then I've returned several times, usually sharing the village with a dozen or two others.

Good questions - poll added for those who went AND those who did not!

I put "some other reason" because I get my fix of vintage buses each September at the Kingsbidge bus running day especially as I spend quite a lot of my time in the area....not least that month.
I've still got Imber on my radar though, if just for the sake of variety.

This is the first time that I can recall I have added a poll onto an old thread - and THANK YOU to those who have already gone back and voted.  This follow up post is a "bump" to bring it to more attention, though actually it's done remarkably well overnight.

As clarified yesterday, I am not associated with the organising and staffing team in any way (though I know a number of people who are) so these inputs are not directly going to inform, but it's likely they will be read by some people who are. I suspect the results will not be news to them, but never the less interesting - and also interesting to the rest of us who may sometimes help get people onto public transport in its various forms.

The organisers have said over £38,000 was raised at this year’s event. 

I voted for the first two options, then for the penultimate one, so rather contradicted myself. I don't like crowds, and have memories of my very first visit when my parents drove me there when it was open. We were the only people there, so it was very atmospheric - and there were remains of rather more houses.

Time was when visitors were cautioned about leaving the main village street except to take the path to the church because of various hazards, with an NCO cautioning that future access might be prevented if people strayed. I guess that on the bus day visitors were wandering all over the place.

Had I been there on the bus day I would have certainly looked at the vehicles, but the mass assembly would not have tempted me to make a special journey.

https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/23738004.wiltshire-village-imber-overwhelmed-10-000-visitors-open-day/

I couldn't attend this year as i was on my way back from Switzerland (by rail)

I was in Imber this morning (the 28th) and by midday it was quite busy - perhaps 80 cars, including a vintage one, and lots of cyclists (not so much of the Lycra type, more tourists and recreational riders, and including quite a few children). There were refreshments and several stalls in the church. Volunteers, presumably, had done an excellent job of taping off no-go areas and putting up information boards. One of the leading lights acknowledged that the turn-out for the bus day had been overwhelming and that the organisers would be reviewing the situation with the military.

Incidentally the 14th and 15th Canadian Field Companies, Canadian Engineers, were in the Tilshead-Chitterne area in mid-1917, building and repairing roads and laying tramlines and railways (presumably of narrow gauge to facilitate the transport of stores and shells to Chapperton Down, (part of the Imber ranges). In their war diaries are references to the latter being laid at Five Down Dump, Hoopers Hollow and Middle Barn, this last being on the Tilshead-Chitterne road and referred to as the "Middle Barn Artillery Training Camp".