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.


I’ve never seen the point of liaison. I understand it if someone is liaising with a big customer on behalf of their company but we call that account management don’t we? It’s a term which represents active responsibility. What doesn’t have point, it seems to me, is liaising between two other people or two other entities. If I liaise between my boss and you, I am just interposing an additional layer, an additional opportunity for mis-understanding. Why don’t you just talk to each other?

HS1 liaises between the various the track owners and the TOC’s. Why? Why can’t they just talk to each other? What value does HS1 add? I have read the corporate speak they have on their website about what they do but I’m only marginally wiser.

Later in the Bottom Line conversation, I found that they also own some of the key stations on the HS1 route, including St Pancras and Ashford International. They contract out the management of those stations to Railtrack and Eurostar so I imagine they have to liaise with them. I’d think that this was the answer – HS1 is a property developer wrapped up in some liaison – except that it seems Nicola Shaw has a deep interest in trains and transport. I love trains too so that makes me really want to be convinced that she has a proper job for a meaningful company. Someone, please convince me.