PRIME Minister Tony Blair pledged that there would be gain for the people of Kent when he officially opened the high-speed Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

Recognising the disruption they had put up with during construction, he said at a VIP ceremony at Waterloo International that they would "benefit enormously by all the investment that has been made”.

He added: "It's not just a marvellous piece of railway infrastructure, it's going to open up the whole of the Thames Gateway and the reclamation of one of the biggest brownfield sites in the whole of Europe.

"That's what we can do if we put our minds to it with the right vision and the right determination."

He launched the £2bn first section of the new line over 46 miles between the Tunnel and Fawkham Junction.

The remarkable engineering achievement is the country's first new major railway for more than a century and signals the start of a new era of high-speed travel in Kent.

For the first time, passengers will be whisked through the Kent countryside at 186mph (300kmh).

New services starting on September 28 will shave 20 minutes off the journey times between London, Paris and Brussels.

Mr Blair said the nation should be immensely proud with a project that showed "imagination and vision". It should act as a spur for what could be achieved in the future.