Stuck bus holds up residents

A bus stuck on Mallam St held up traffic on the Karori cul-de-sac for about an hour yesterday, stopping many residents from making it to work or school on time.

Louisa Gommans was headed out of the house with her husband and son shortly before 9am when she noticed the bus blocking the road.

Neighbours told her it had become stuck about 30 minutes earlier.

‘‘Mallam St is a cul-de-sac and there’s no bus route on that road, so I don’t know why a bus would have come down it.’’

‘‘I called Metlink to let them know and they didn’t know why there was a bus on Mallam St either.’’

The slope of the street appeared to be the reason for the predicament of the bus. The back of the bus was so stuck on the uphill section of the road that it left scrapes in the asphalt.

A Metlink spokesman said it was looking into why the bus was on that street. He said whether or not the bus driver would be punished for the incident was up to the bus operator, Tranzit.

Gommans said it was ‘‘very inconvenient’’ for residents, especially on the first day after school holidays.

A Tranzit maintenance crew member eventually turned up and freed the bus.

‘‘It would have been there for at least an hour,’’ Gommans said.

Metlink said the bus was ‘‘bottomed out’’ for a half an hour after it received a call about it.

‘‘[Bottoming out] happens every now and again because Wellington does have quite a large number of streets with tight bends in them and they’re steep and winding.’’