The train, which raced along at speeds of up to 202mph, took two hours, three minutes and 39 seconds, cutting the previous journey time by 32 minutes.

It was the first time a train had run from Paris to London along a new 24-mile stretch of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, now known as High Speed 1, linking Ebbsfleet in Kent to St Pancras.

Eurostar removed heavy food service trolleys and ran only half-full in a bid to break the psychological two-hour barrier, but a speed restriction on the line near Calais meant it narrowly failed.

When regular services are switched from Waterloo to St Pancras in November the journey will take a more sedate two hours and 15 minutes, at a maximum speed of 186mph. Eurostar hopes the time-saving will help it increase passenger numbers from 8.3m this year to 10m by 2010.

From November passengers will be able to buy through-tickets from 145 stations around Britain to the continent, with return fares from Manchester to Paris starting at £84.

“Today marks Britain’s entry into the European high-speed rail club,” Richard Brown, chief executive of Eurostar, said as the train arrived in St Pancras.

The completed 68-mile British section of high-speed track from the Channel Tunnel crosses over the Medway viaduct and under the Thames, before looping underground to the east of the City of London to emerge at St Pancras.

The total cost of the project, which includes the redevelopment of St Pancras and construction of new stations at Ebbsfleet and Stratford, east London, was £5.8bn.

Neil Meare, who drove the train on the British side of the Channel, admitted that Britain’s failure to complete its high-speed rail link had been a source of embarrassment in the past.

In 1993 François Mitterrand, then French president, famously quipped that the slow crawl through southern Britain – at speeds as low as 60mph – at least gave passengers a chance to admire the landscape.

“Now the French people can finally forget about Waterloo,” Guillaume Pépy, chairman of Eurostar, said before the inaugural run.

London and Continental Railways, the company responsible for High Speed 1, expects it to attract £10bn of investment to run-down parts of east London.

High-speed domestic services will begin in 2009, cutting the journey time between Ebbsfleet and St Pancras to 17 minutes.

During the 2012 Olympic Games the line will carry high-speed shuttle services between St Pancras and a new station at the Olympic site in Stratford.

“This project is about much more than just transporting passengers from London to the continent,” Rob Holden, LCR chief executive, said. “It’s about the creation of a piece of infrastructure that will be a catalyst for the regeneration of some of the most deprived areas of Britain.”

Speed king

• New record time between Paris and London of two hours, three minutes and 39 seconds.
• From November 14 the journey will take two hours and 15 minutes, 20 minutes faster than present, at a top speed of 186mph.
• High-speed domestic services from a new station at Ebbsfleet will begin in 2009. The journey to St Pancras will take 17 minutes at speeds of up to 140mph.
• Fares from St Pancras to Paris will continue to cost from £59.
• Through-tickets to the continent from 145 stations around the country will be available from November.