St Pancras is a rare example of upstaging the French at a game they usually play better than us.

The transformation of the station to accommodate Eurostar was a "grand projet" on which public money was lavished in order to create a major amenity for future generations.

The Gare du Nord is pleasant but banal compared with the splendour of the new "destination station", as the adverts call it.

And, for once, the publicity is not exaggerated. The only possible contender for the title of greatest station in the world is the new Berlin Hauptbanhof but that lacks the sheer craziness of the Gothic folly of Gilbert Scott's hotel and the sheer expanse of William Barlow's train shed.

St Pancras is something else that we do not normally do well: a fantastic blend of the old and the new.

The brilliant way that a station built by the Midland Railway 140 years ago has been refurbished to accommodate 18 coach trains carrying international passengers is testimony to Britain's engineering talent.

The genius is in using the undercroft, supported by nearly 800 pillars and built originally to store and send out beer delivered from the Midlands, for the check-in areas, lit by the natural light from huge holes carved out of the original platform level.

Such audacious design in the refurbishment of an old listed building is rare in this country where the powerful heritage lobby, with its love of classical pastiche and fear of creating "carbuncles", holds sway.

St Pancras International will, as promised, ensure that the Channel Tunnel is better used.

However, being Britain, there are disappointments, such as the fact that no new destinations will be served by Eurostar trains and the road network around the station is redolent of the sort of gyratory system which elsewhere TfL is removing. Cyclists, too, appear to have been forgotten in the plans.

It would be churlish not to celebrate this momentous event but it's a shame there is not another on the way.

* Christian Wolmar is the author of Fire And Steam, A New History Of The Railways In Britain, recently published by Atlantic Books.

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