About 80 passengers were left stranded beside State Highway 2 on Remutaka Hill in Wellington after a bus broke down.

Wellington’s public transport woes were on full display this morning when a double-decker bus was used as a train replacement service to the Wairarapa. It left the capital’s central railway station just after 10am.

Dan Boerman was on the bus making the trip back to Martinborough to visit his mum for New Year’s Eve and help make one of her renowned lemon cheesecakes.

“The bus got up on the hill and before the incident, for about 10 minutes, it was crawling along. It didn’t look like it was moving, it was so slow.

 “You could hear the engine was just having a really bad time.”

Boerman, who was sitting on the top level of the bus, said the bus then came to a stop, which he assumed was to let cars pass.

“About a minute later they tried restarting the bus and there was a brief half-second moment when the bus rolled backwards. Then it started inching forward about a metre and then it just stopped.”

Boerman said there was no communication from the driver to the upstairs passengers about what was going on.

Metlink has been approached for comment.

Boerman then looked out the window to find people from the lower level of the bus had hopped off and were walking along the side of the state highway.

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He snapped a photo of them trailing up the hill with a slow vehicle bay sign in the foreground pointing in their direction.

“I was pretty concerned for their safety.”

He and other passengers decided to get off the bus too.

“Kiwis being Kiwis, within two minutes there were five or six cars stopped on the side of the road. Everyone was hitching a ride and got their thumbs out.”

Boerman rang police because he was worried about those remaining being “sitting ducks” on the side of the road.

At some point the bus took off again, which Boerman suspected was only possible because its load was lighter.

Boerman remained with four other people, two of whom were picked up by friends.

Police arrived and gave him and two young women a lift to the Wairarapa.

Boerman said he could laugh about the situation now, but he was quite worried about people’s safety at the time.

A police spokesperson confirmed police were notified at about 11.15am that a double-decker bus had broken down on Remutaka Hill on the Hutt Valley side.