A tram crosses a bridge over the Rhine between Strasbourg, France, and Kehl, Germany, during the inauguration of the Strasbourg tram's extension to Germany, in Strasbourg, France | Patrick Hertzog/AFP/Getty Images) Strasbourg’s eurotram aims to boost Franco-German axis Tram extension from European Parliament’s home to Germany is celebrated but has critics.

Decorated in the EU's circle of stars, Strasbourg's new tram extension is big on symbolism.

The first scheduled tramway since 1945 to run over the Rhine River that marks France's border with Germany set off on Saturday morning. But Strasbourg's Line D extension to the town of Kehl is a vision of European cooperation being stress tested by elections in both countries this year.

"This tram and bridge are not just a symbol, but a concrete building block for a common Europe," Peter Altmaier, chief of staff to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said at Friday's ceremonial opening, AFP reported. "After the elections in France and Germany, we must continue working together for Europe."

About 150 passengers boarded the tram in the early hours of Saturday morning for a first, music-filled trip across the new bridge, reaching Kehl at 4:47 a.m. For now, the trip from Strasbourg city center terminates just east of the Rhine. By the end of 2018, the route will be extended all the way to Kehl's town hall.

Some 288 passengers will be able to cram on to each tram, with departures every 15 minutes for the 20-minute trip.

Authorities on both sides have had to hammer out a tariff system for how charge passengers, while police are grappling to set up a system for judging liability for damage and who has jurisdiction to act on crimes committed on board the tram.

With France's presidential election in full flight, incumbent President François Hollande stayed away. Merkel dispatched her top lieutenant Altmaier to the European Parliament's home, but no EU officials spoke at the launch.

Instead, it was down to locals to defend the €97 million project — mostly funded by the Strasbourg authority with just €3 million coming in EU project cash.

"For me, the extension of the tram to Germany has a strong symbolic meaning," Strasbourg’s Socialist mayor Roland Ries said. "When some want to build walls, we, together with the Germans, build a bridge."

The trams were built at French train maker Alstom’s plant at La Rochelle on the Bay of Biscay, while part of the driver’s cabin was put together in the Lower Saxon town of Salzgitter in Germany's northern industrial heartland.

Transit by bus and car over an often congested Rhine road crossing has been possible since a tramway last ran 72 years ago. MEPs who descend on Strasbourg for plenary sessions and deal-making dinners once a month will likely be delighted with the new connection. German parliamentarians that cross into Kehl at night to take advantage of the cheaper board and a taste of home will find traffic much improved and their chauffeured journeys quicker.

Ries sees the route as a chance to cut unemployment in his corner of France — at 10 percent — by offering easier transit over the German border region where the jobless rate stands at just 3.5 percent.

But some French businesses fear a shopper exodus as locals flock east for cheaper products and cigarettes in Germany. Strasbourg's tobacconists plan to protest in May against what they see as unfair competition on the tram and another imbalance between the EU's big power couple.