When travelling on Swiss public transport, especially through the mountains, you’d be forgiven for taking a picture or two to help capture the magnificent landscape. If this sounds like you, you aren't alone: one study has now confirmed that the mountain railways of Switzerland are some of the most photographed rail routes on earth.
The study, created by clothes company Superdry, attempted to answer the question: what is the most photographed railway in the world? Whether it's with your mobile phone or through a professional photo lens, the ranking hoped to find out which stretch of track was the most visually appealing to tourists and travellers.
To create the study, the international company analysed 500.000 hashtags relating to scenic railway journeys from around the world. They then divided the number of hashtags (pictures) by the length of each journey to find the number of “photos per kilometre” - unofficially ranking the most “Instagrammable railway in the world.”
In this case, the sheer length of mountain railways in Switzerland spelt their downfall, as although the Bernina Express was the most photographed railway on the list - with 71.580 pictures taken - its 163-kilometre length meant that it fell behind the Brocken Railway in Germany, which had 1.548 photos per kilometre.
The Flåmbahn in Norway came second with 739 photos per kilometre, followed by the Puffing Billy Railway in Australia (643), the Bernina Express (439) and the Ffestiniog Railway in Wales (313). In all, Superdry concluded that Europe was the best place to experience the world’s most scenic rail journeys, as nine of the top 20 and 18 of the top 50 most photographed train rides were to be found in Europe.
In another top ranking for Switzerland, the Glacier Express came 11th with 105 photos taken per kilometre. It did record the second-highest number of hashtags with 30.431 pictures, but, like the Bernina Express, was let down by its 290-kilometre length. The final Swiss railway on the list was the Golden Pass Panoramic, which came 19th in Europe, with 493 photos taken along the 400-kilometre journey.
Overall, the 10 most beautiful railways in the world were found to be: