EUROSTAR, the high speed railway linking Kent to Continental Europe, clocked 200 mph in Medway on its record-breaking inaugural journey from Paris to London.

The trial run on the now completed 68-mile link between the Channel Tunnel and London on Tuesday took just 2h 3min, the fastest-ever rail journey between the French and British capitals.

It passed through Ashford International and the new £100m Ebbsfleet International station, just off the M2 between Gravesend and Dartford, before crossing under the Thames and approaching London in tunnels under east London..

The record-breaking train carrying 400 passengers, mainly journalists and Eurostar sales staff, left Gare du Nord, Paris, at 9.44am, arriving at St Pancras International at 11.47am after the 306-mile journey, reaching speeds of up to 200mph in Northern France and near the Medway viaduct.

Scheduled services will usually travel at a maximum speed of 186mph - 50 per cent quicker that Britain’s fastest domestic rail services.

Richard Brown, Eurostar’s chief executive, said: "Eurostar has proved that our 186 mph trains are by far the quickest way of travelling between France and Britain. Paris and London have joined the two-hour club and our great cities are now even closer together."

The new scheduled service, which starts on November 14 from St Pancras International, will shave around 20 minutes from the current 2h 35m journey time between Paris and Waterloo. London-Brussels journey times will be cut to 1h 51m, and London - Lille 1h 20m.

Journey times from Ebbsfleet, which opens for business on November 19, will be 10 minutes shorter than from St Pancras.

Eurostar chiefs claim that faster journeys between the UK and the Continent will boost business and tourism in London and the regions, including Kent and Medway.

They also argue that going by rail is greener than flying and believe the new faster service - dubbed High Speed 1 - will encourage more passengers to switch from plane to train.

The last train from Waterloo International will leave on November 13, with the switch taking place overnight. The first services will stop at Ebbsfleet on November 19.

The new High Speed 1 timetable has been controversial in Kent because it drastically reduces the number of services stopping at Ashford International, including the axing of all services to Brussels.

Eurostar has switched most services to Ebbsfleet, with just four departures a day from Ashford. The operator has resisted all calls, many at Government and local council level, for restoration of servces.

Meanwhile, Eurostar plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 25 per cent per passenger journey by 2012. From November 14, it will offset CO2 emissions that it cannot eliminate at its own expense, making it the first train company in the world to offer ‘carbon neutral’ journeys to all its customers.