IT is 46 years and eight months to the day since the last train linking the Scottish Borders to the capital rolled into Edinburgh Waverley.

Nearly five decades after the Beeching cuts axed the Waverley line and cut a corner of Scotland out of the country's rail network, the Scottish Borders is being put "back on the map" as the new Borders Railway opens to the public.

Normal service resumes at 8.45am tomorrow when the first train departs from Tweedbank, one of seven new stations built as part of the £243 million infrastructure project, en route to Edinburgh Waverley.

The 30-mile route, which has taken just over two years to complete, is the longest domestic railway built in the UK for more than a century. A total of 95 bridges were restored, 42 new ones constructed and two Victorian tunnels repaired during construction, with 1,000 people employed at the peak of the project.

It is expected to carry almost 650,000 passenger a year and deliver "transformational opportunities" for the region's businesses, hospitality industry and tourist attractions including Rosslyn Chapel, Melrose Abbey and the National Mining Museum.

Keith Brown, Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, hailed its restoration as a symbol of a "golden age" for Scotland's railway, which will be "the vehicle for a new prosperity for the communities on the route”.

Mr Brown also paid tribute to the tireless campaigners who battled to bring rail back to their Midlothian and Borders communities.

He said: “The people who campaigned for this, many of them are no longer with us. I feel privileged to have been part of the government that put the money towards it to bring it back, but those were the people who kept the flame burning through all those years.”

While the official royal opening will not take place until Wednesday, coinciding with the date the Queen becomes Britain's longest-serving monarch, the celebrations begin today when each new station along the line will have its own first train carrying 200 specially-nominated 'Golden Ticket' holders representing their communities.

Yesterday, it was the turn of the press and people directly involved with the project to trial run the service, which departed from platform 7 of Edinburgh Waverley at 10.20am sharp with veteran ScotRail driver Yvonne Reid, 50, at the helm.

Ms Reid, who has been a train driver for 24 years and helped train drivers for the restored route, said she was honoured to have driven its first passenger service.

She said: "It's been brilliant. It's a lovely route [to drive] - very scenic."

The former Waverley Route connected Edinburgh with the Scottish Borders, Carlisle and London St Pancras, and the Scottish Government has not ruled out a future extension to Carlisle.

For now, rail tourists can immerse themselves in a region which, as Scottish Borders council leader David Parker noted, was once a "dark and fearsome place" famed for "the Borders Reivers, sheep rustling and inventing blackmail".

Mike Cantlay, the Galashiels-born chairman of VisitScotland, said the return of the railway was a poignant moment for him personally and historic for "Scotland, the UK and the world".

The agency is embarking on a national and global campaign to attract visitors to the railway and its region.

"We cannot wait to show the world all the Borders Railway has to offer," said Mr Cantlay.