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Amphibious Encyclopedia · Tours and transport

Amphibious bus

An amphibious bus is a passenger vehicle laid out like a road bus or coach that can drive down a ramp into a river, lake or harbor and carry on as a boat. Most are used for sightseeing tours, although at least one was tested as a replacement for a river ferry [6]. Well-known designs include the Malta-built AmphiCoach, the Dutch Amfibus and the KABA buses of Japan [3][5][9].

  • Tours and transport
  • 2000s to present
  • Worldwide (examples in Malta, the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States)

Design

An amphibious bus puts a bus body and passenger cabin on top of a sealed, boat-shaped lower hull, with a road chassis and engine inside. On the AmphiCoach, built on an Iveco bus platform, the hull is marine-grade aluminum; once afloat the wheels pull up into the hull and a water jet drives the vehicle [1][3]. The Dutch Amfibus is built on a Volvo chassis and seats 55. It is listed at 13.8 m (45 ft) long and 22 tonnes, with a road speed of 60 mph (97 km/h) and water jets giving about 6.5 knots (12 km/h) [5].

Other designs, such as Japan's KABA buses, use a screw propeller in the water [10]. Some add buoyancy foam so the hull stays afloat if it floods. The Hydra-Terra, built in South Carolina by Cool Amphibious Manufacturers International (CAMI), uses foam-filled compartments and is offered for 30 to 49 passengers plus two crew [11].

AmphiCoach

The AmphiCoach GTS-1 was funded by Scottish developer George Smith and built by hand in Malta between 2004 and 2007, with help from former Malta Drydocks workers [3]. Presented to the press in 2009, it seated 50 and was reported to reach about 8 knots (15 km/h) on the water [1][2]. Auto Bild gave the base price as GBP 280,000 and said the builder could fit Iveco diesels of 250 to 300 hp [2]. Wikipedia lists one AmphiCoach in service in Budapest, on the RiverRide tour, and a second delivered to Belfast [3].

Amfibus and Splashtours

Dutch Amphibious Transport (DAT) of Nijmegen built the Amfibus. Its first bus went to Splashtours in Rotterdam, which sold tickets for harbor tours in 2011, and DAT says the concept has since operated in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Lübeck and Porto [4][5].

An Amfibus was also tried as public transport. On February 8 and 9, 2010, the bus company Stagecoach ran trials on the River Clyde in Scotland between slipways at Renfrew and Yoker, as a possible replacement for the Renfrew ferry. The vehicle cost about GBP 700,000 [5][6]. It was not chosen, and a boat operator took over the ferry in April 2010 [5].

Hamburg RiverBus

Hamburg's HafenCity RiverBus began carrying passengers in April 2016 and was described as Germany's first amphibious bus [7][12]. It uses a MAN truck chassis under a sealed body built by a Hungarian company, and two water jets give it up to 7 knots (13 km/h) on the Elbe [7]. The tour lasts about 70 minutes, starts in the Speicherstadt and enters the river near the Entenwerder peninsula [8].

Japan's KABA buses

Japan has several amphibious buses. Fuji Kyuko Bus has run the YAMANAKAKO NO KABA on Lake Yamanaka, near Mount Fuji, since April 2011; it was the first amphibious bus in Yamanashi Prefecture and was designed by Eiji Mitooka [10]. Service stopped in November 2023 because the lake level had dropped, and it resumed on June 13, 2026, with a new open-roof vehicle. A ride lasts about 30 minutes [9].

Sources

  1. Amphibious coach launched, Motor Boat & Yachting (2009-06-03). www.mby.com/news/amphibious-coach-launched-29801
  2. Amphicoach Amphibious Tourist Bus, Auto Bild (2009-03-19). www.autobild.de/artikel/amphicoach-amphibious-tourist-bus-869928.html
  3. AmphiCoach GTS-1, Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AmphiCoach_GTS-1
  4. DAT: Dutch Amphibious Transport, DAT Vehicles. datbv.com
  5. Amfibus, Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amfibus
  6. Stagecoach hits the water with amphibious bus trial, Local Transport Today (TransportXtra) (2010-02-25). www.transportxtra.com/publications/local-transport-today/news/21619/stagecoach-hits-the-water-with-amphibious-bus-trial
  7. Video: Hamburg's Amphibious Riverbus, Mac's Motor City Garage (2017-02-23). macsmotorcitygarage.com/video-hamburgs-amphibious-riverbus
  8. Riverbus: Amphibische Stadtkreuzfahrt, Hamburg Tourismus. www.hamburg-tourism.de/sehen-erleben/hamburg-maritim/riverbus
  9. Amphibious Bus "YAMANAKAKO NO KABA" Resumes Operation. New "Open KABA" Vehicle, First in 6 Years, Adds to the Thrill of the Lake Dive, Travel Watch (Impress) (2026-07-06). travel.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/2122558.html
  10. Amphibious Bus "Yamanakako no Kaba" Adds a Summer-Only Evening Ride to Catch Mount Fuji at Dusk, Holiday Travel (2026-08-03). haveagood-holiday.com/en/articles/yamanakako-kaba-evening-ride-summer-2026
  11. State-of-the-Art Hydra-Terra, Cool Amphibious Manufacturers International (CAMI). camillc.com/hydra-terra
  12. This Is Germany's First Amphibious Bus And It's Used For Hamburg City Tours, Carscoops (2016-09-02). www.carscoops.com/2016/09/this-is-germanys-first-amphibious-bus.html

Last reviewed November 2026. Spotted something to correct or add? Tell us and include a source.

About the Amphibious Encyclopedia

WaterCar has designed and built amphibious vehicles in Southern California for more than 25 years. We keep this encyclopedia so anyone curious about vehicles that cross between land and water has one place to start, with the sources listed for every fact.

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