Under proposed changes to the route between Amersham and Wendover in Buckinghamshire Mr Hammond said there were opportunities for a "green bridge" over the cutting and a longer "green tunnel".
Cutting-edge simulation techniques will soon bridge even the visual divides, making you feel like you're sitting across the table from someone thousands of miles away.
But at time of the disaster the skipper had plotted a shorter than normal route, in effect cutting a corner, and it was the ship's cook who was on watch in the bridge.