Bright yellow amphibian bus is not a public transport but a private tourist bus in the Netherlands
Claim
Rating
Explanation
A 45-second video clip of a yellow-coloured bus with passengers traveling on land and in water is shared on Twitter as public transport in the Netherlands that travels on both land and sea.
Hem denizde hem de karada giden toplu taşıma aracı. Yer Hollanda/ Rotterdam. Sizin Türkçe isim önerileriniz nedir ? pic.twitter.com/hvWAypVBaq
— İyi ki Öğrendim (@iyikiogrendim) January 26, 2021
What is the truth?
When reverse-searching the keyframes of the video, we found that the bus was traveling in the river Rotterdam in the Netherlands. A matching visual is found as a thumbnail of the Shutterstock webpage, but the page does not display any content. However, the image is captioned “Amphibious bus enters Maas river Rotterdam…”. The words ‘The most splashing way to see Rotterdam’ and ‘splashtours.nl’ are visible on the bus as in the viral video. The buildings at the background also seems matching with that of the viral video.
When searching for ‘splashtours.nl’ as seen on the yellow-coloured bus, the site gives two options ‘Rotterdam’ and ‘Amsterdam’ to choose from. The website mentions that the ‘splashtours’ bus is a tourist attraction in Rotterdam. This vehicle can accommodate up to 43 passengers and is mentioned as the only vehicle in the world that is certified to enter water as a full-fledged bus on the road and as a seaworthy ship. It is private transportation and lists the option to book tickets on its website.
A video of the bright yellow amphibian bus of Splashtours traveling in water can be seen in a video uploaded by ‘Unimedien’ YouTube channel in 2018. The video is titled “SPLASHTOURS ROTTERDAM | the spectacular splashing swimming bus | 4K- Quality-Video”.
The description part reads “Video about the spectacular splashing bus of SPLASHTOURS ROTTERDAM in the Netherlands. Or, looked from the other side, a ship that can drive on the road.”
A website about the Netherlands mentions the ‘Splash bus cruise’ as a tourism attraction in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The page also gives the details of the location, the official website, and options to book tickets for the tourist bus. ‘Splash Tours BV’ is identified as the name of the business.
Conclusion
It is found that the video of a bright yellow amphibian bus traveling in water in Rotterdam is a private tourist bus in the Netherlands and not a public transport as claimed.
