Imberbus 2026 will be held on Saturday 16th August when up to 30 old and new Routemaster buses (plus a few guest vehicles) will operate from Warminster to Imber and other points on Salisbury Plain.

This year, access to Imber on this date will only be possible using the Imberbuses themselves. Cars, motorbikes, cycles, scooters or pedestrians will not be permitted access to the military roads on this date, so if you want to drive your own vehicle to Imber, you will need to delay your trip until the Bank Holiday weekend (29th-31st August). For further details of other dates when the road through Imber is open, please visit the Imber Church website).

What we are planning for Imberbus 2026:

A summary of the timetable that we are intending to operate can be downloaded by clicking here and a full colour Event Guide will be available on the day.. The general format of this year’s event is expected to be very similar to last year and will include the following important features:

Up to 40 buses in operation, some of which will be wheelchair accessible.
Departures approximately every 10-15 minutes from Warminster Station to Imber from 9.30am onwards, with buses returning from Imber at regular intervals until 5.30pm;
Buses serving Tilshead, Chitterne, New Zealand Farm Camp, West Lavington, Market Lavington and Brazen Bottom at least twice an hour throughout most of the day;
One morning and two afternoon journeys running direct between Warminster and Chitterne (not via Imber);
Most journeys will be operated by at least 2 vehicles (and usually more!);
A few “non-London” guest vehicles that have not visited Imber before;
Imber Church open for viewing and refreshments from 10am to 6pm;
Light refreshments available at the village halls in Tilshead and Chitterne and the Beans & Bits Cafe at Warminster Station;
The refurbished Market Lavington Museum will be open again in the Old School House next to the village church and serving cream teas until 5pm;
Public houses will also be available at Warminster, Market Lavington and West Lavington, along with the recently reopened Kings Head at Chitterne.
A small transport sales stall will be available inside Tilshead village hall.
Performances by the Bratton Silver Band, and Morris Dancing, plus displays by the London Transport Museum and the Thames Valley & Great Western omnibus Trust,
Alternative car parking available at Sack Hill, Warminster School and at Chitterne (see below).
Direct coaches are expected to run to our event from London & Basingstoke, Coventry, Newport, Cardiff and Swansea, plus a special Railtour train from London Waterloo.

The routes that the buses will take can be seen on the map below (please click on it to see a larger version in PDF format). As usual, buses will connect at our Gore Cross Bus Station, so that passengers can easily travel to/from all points on our network.

How much does it cost to travel on Imberbus ?

Our fare structure is a simple one with just two ticket prices – £10 for adults and £2 for children. These tickets will allow you unlimited travel on all the Imberbuses, so you can hop on and off them as much as you want and visit all the different places we serve.

Imberbus operates in the same way as an ordinary local bus service, so there is no facility to pre-book a seat or to pay in advance via the internet – just turn up and join the queue then pay the conductor on the bus in cash (payment in £5 or £10 notes or £1 and £2 coins is always appreciated and there are cash machines available in Warminster town centre for those that needed them). To speed things up we will also have staff selling tickets outside Warminster Station during the morning and early afternoon, some of whom will be able to accept payment by contactless credit/debit cards.

Please note that we are unable to accept concessionary bus passes for travel on our buses and the Government’s £3 farecap and Free Child Travel schemes do not apply either.

How to Travel to Imberbus

Advice on travelling to Warminster can be found on the “Travelling to Imberbus” page on our website and this includes details of where to park if travelling by car. Please be aware that the car parks in Warminster town centre can get very busy and so we would strongly advise you to travel to our event using public transport if at all possible. Trains run direct to Warminster from Cardiff, Newport, Bristol, Bath, Westbury, Salisbury, Southampton and Portsmouth (plus several places in between) and this year there will be coaches running direct from London, Coventry and South Wales, plus a rail tour from the London area in a historic Hastings DEMU.

However, for those for whom public transport is not an option, we are arranging for a Park & Ride car park to be available again at the Cricket Field at Chitterne, which is a useful alternative to anyone driving from London, Salisbury or Southampton. We will also be operating our early-bird car park at Sack Hill (on the road from Warminster to Imber) to assist those that can arrive before midday and an extra car park will also be available this year at Warminster School (approximately 15 minute walk from the Station).

If you are intending to stay overnight in the area, you may find that accommodation options are fairly limited in Warminster itself, so please consider staying in one of our neighbouring towns and travelling to Warminster on the day by bus or train.

IMPORTANT – If you are planning on bringing a group of people to Warminster in a bus or coach to travel on Imberbus, please contact us ASAP as there are very few coach parking facilities available in Warminster.

If you would like further information about our event, please check out the other pages on our website, including the Frequently Asked Questions page which provides important information on where you can and cannot go, where you can get something to eat and also the location of public toilets (which are few and far between on the Salisbury Plain!). You can also view the Imberbus video that was released in 2018 below;

and a sequel released in 2019!

If you can see anything below this line, it is an advertisement and is not related to our event, so please ignore it.