What's the point of HS1?

I don’t mean the rail service itself. I understand that bit. I used High Speed 1 to go to the Folkestone Triennial festival this summer and the journey was smooth, comfortable and, as you would expect, fast. It was particularly comfortable as the train wasn’t exactly crowded. The extensive sound-proofing along the route is unfortunate from a passenger’s perspective as you lose views of some beautiful Kent countryside but never mind.

What I mean is that I don’t get the point of the company HS1. I was listening to their CEO, Nicola Shaw, on The Bottom Line on BBC Radio 4 recently and I didn’t get it at all. They don’t own or maintain the track (that’s Railtrack). They don’t run the trains (train operating companies, TOC’s, do that). The key word seemed to be “liaison” and I think that was the problem.