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Ashford once again has a direct train service to Brussels.

Politicians from Kent County Council, MEPs, press and a handful of passengers gathered before dawn on Monday morning at Ashford International Station.

Politicians posed for photos as a jazz band played and TV cameras rolled.

Monday was also the first day Eurostar services were up to full speed following the Channel Tunnel fire last September.

Ashford used to have a service to Brussels until it was axed when Ebbsfleet opened in November 2007. That was despite much opposition including a 15,000-name petition delivered to Downing Street by campaigner Edith Robson and Ashford MP Damian Green.

Mr Green went to Ashford International to see the train depart at 6.27am. He said: “This is a great day for Ashford. We’ve been campaigning for a long time to get the direct service back to Ashford so it’s worth getting up early in the morning to wave it off.”

Mrs Robson, who makes the journey to Brussels regularly, was also there in her orange campaign T-shirt to celebrate Ashford’s direct link with Brussels.

She said: “It’s a good start. This service will be great for business people but it doesn’t address the leisure market. People can’t access it from the rest of Kent or East Sussex. I’d like to see a train maybe about 9am which also stopped at Lille; as we used to have lots of people who got off at Lille to access the rest of Europe.”

The train arrived in Brussels at 9am allowing politicians a chance to see the European Parliament and a campus of the University of Kent which is in Brussels.

The return train, with champagne-drinking politicians and press in the first class carriage, left Brussels at 4.59pm arriving back in Ashford by 5.30pm.

uE06E Brussels services leave Ashford at 6.27am Monday to Friday, 8.28am on Saturdays and 6.55pm on Sundays.

uE06E Fares start from £59 return and allow travellers from Ashford to travel through to any station in Belgium.