MOANING Minnies" was how John Prescott chose to dismiss those who had the temerity to question the colossal investment in the new Eurostar hub at St Pancras. It was interesting that Labour's former Deputy Prime Minister used a phrase so favoured by Margaret Thatcher to traduce those with concerns about the project.

Prescott, of course, claims ownership of the scheme to refurbish the London station and complete the high-speed rail link to England's south coast and on to Europe. He was at his bellicose best in putting down those who muttered disparagingly about the cost and the anticipated resulting benefits. Few politicians are as combative as a cranky Prescott and, as the first train left St Pancras for Paris on Wednesday, he was as crabbit as could be with his critics.

St Pancras International (to give it its official name) has done nothing by halves. Included in the restored station is Europe's longest champagne bar at more than 90 metres. There are a number of restaurants, including a brasserie, a gastro pub, a Japanese sushi place, a French cafe and a number of casual eateries. There is the striking Meeting Place sculpture by the artist Paul Day, a nine-metre bronze model of an embracing couple. There is a statue of Sir John Betjeman in recognition of the poet's role in campaigning to save the building from demolition in the 1960s. Inevitably, the retail opportunity has been grasped. There is a daily farmers' market inside the main entrance, there is a shopping arcade with boutique outlets and there are the high-street stores.

Prescott barked that the £800m project was delivered on time and within budget and was, indeed, a triumph for forward-planning, having been his brainchild back in 1997 when he came to office in the Blair government. He crowed about the magnificent restoration job done on the venerable structure. He was thrilled at the excitement generated as the inaugural train departed. It presaged, he claimed, a new golden age for rail travel.

All well and good, and difficult to contradict - with the exception of the "golden age" claim, which is based as yet wholly on wishful thinking and nothing firmer than optimism.

However, there are legitimate concerns and those who voice them are justified in so doing. The most obvious is the cost. At £800m, the Eurostar hub has not come cheap. It is worth recalling the condemnation from many quarters - especially, perhaps, those in the south-east - of the cost of the Scottish Parliament. At around half the price of St Pancras (and the ridiculous Millennium Dome, with which Prescott was also connected), it is beginning to look like increasingly good value. One can only hope that those in London who excoriated the Holyrood project will now shut up about it.

Another major concern articulated this week was the concentration of enormous resources to link London to the continent rather than to the rest of Britain. Travelling by rail to Paris in just a little over two hours is admirable, but train journeys between British cities remain - for many passengers and all too frequently - a forgettable (at best), time-consuming, uncomfortable, costly and occasionally lamentable experience.

One critic of the St Pancras project spoke on the radio of how the high-speed Eurostar link will hasten the marginalisation of parts of Britain. When it is quicker to commute to London from Calais than Cheltenham, he said, we have a problem. Additionally, when it takes a little over one hour by train to reach Lille, who will head for Liverpool? Or when it is under two hours to Brussels, who will venture to Bristol? It's a fair point, but the argument is flawed. Were we supposed to eschew the high-speed train travel enjoyed across the Channel? Should we not have aspired to join the Eurostar club?

Other critics of the high-speed rail project point out that it is doomed to failure thanks to the advent of budget airlines, which have provided already a faster, cheaper option for many people. Quite so. But as climate change looms increasingly large for us all, trains offer a cleaner, greener choice.

The jury is still out on the new golden age of railways predicted by John Prescott. But he is right in many ways: thanks to the early efforts of John Betjeman, the magnificent Victorian station has been saved; it is an architectural treasure and deserved to be restored. And the rapid journey times to key continental cities are to be celebrated.

But if the golden age is to dawn and the huge investment is to be worthwhile, ultimately the rest of Britain needs to be included. We require high-speed links to Scotland, Wales and peripheral parts of England. If the rest of Britain cannot easily access Eurostar, it will lead only to further centralisation of resources in London. And, as the St Pancras project, Crossrail, the 2012 Olympics and other enterprises prove, there is enough of that already.