EDINBURGH’S tram service has finally opened after 400 years of planning.

Original plans for the Edinburgh tram system were drawn up shortly after King James VI united Scotland and England into the Union of the Crowns in 1603.

The project was delayed by a series of unforeseen circumstances including the Colquhoun massacre, an outbreak of plague, the Great Fire of 1824, the First and Second World Wars and the widespread realisation that the project was almost entirely pointless.

But four centuries later, the tram system, which has cost every person in Edinburgh roughly £200,000, has been unveiled to great acclaim.

Local Stephen Malley said: “This tramway shows the world what we Edinburghians can achieve if you give us a significant chunk of a millennium and an almost limitless supply of money.

“Now we can get from the city centre to the airport ever so slightly slower than we could on several other forms of public transport.

“It’s an amazing time to be alive.”