Final Destination

All aboard for a one-of-a-kind journey by train to some of the most obscure parts of Britain


On the 200th birthday of the world’s first passenger-carrying railway, Nige Tassell sets out to ride Britain’s railway network all the way to its lesser-travelled-to corners, its seldom-visited outposts. From Wick to Penzance and many points in between, he stays on until the end of the line. He is the last man sitting.


The sixteen final destinations he visits offer sixteen different stories. By delving into their histories, by speaking to their people and by having a good old-fashioned nose around, Tassell reveals much about places that rarely have light cast upon them – from ferry ports to abandoned resorts, from tiny hamlets to towns being reclaimed by the sea. It’s a journey that takes in Karl Marx, Harry Potter, goths, Jean Shrimpton, Alan Bennett, Aneurin Bevan, Vikings, John Betjeman, Nigel Farage and a bloodthirsty TV butcher. All human life is here.


So grab yourself a window seat for an odyssey that tells us much about Britain today. All aboard, all aboard.