Plans to link Kingston with Sutton, Merton and Leatherhead were ditched last year as they were not considered financially viable, but some believe a vision of providing Kingston with an extensive tram network is still achievable.

Kingston Council's chief executive Bruce McDonald chairs South London Trams, an advocacy group set up by South London Partnership to work on the south London project.

And the pressure group is pushing for the borough to be included as part of an integrated, multi-million-pound south London light rail system.

It would link the borough with Croydon, Crystal Palace, Purley, Streatham, Tooting and Sutton, as well as a cross river tram system from Brixton up to Camden.

David Cockle, managing director of Leewood Projects Limited, which helped bring trams to Croydon and worked on the Metrolink in Manchester, has been involved in planning the scheme for the past two-and-a-half years. He believes it could be up and running by 2012 in time for the Olympics.

He said: "Kingston was pretty much standing alone in the initial proposal. But this would see the borough as part of a south London-wide scheme so we think there is much more chance it will happen.

"There will be opposition to it but having trams in Kingston would make a big difference. It would help the environment, by cutting down on car emissions, provide jobs locally, and would greatly improve transport access for the elderly and those who presently struggle to get about.

"It's a long way off and will be an uphill struggle but Kingston will be included if I have anything to do with it."

The Croydon Tramlink system, reintroduced in May 2000, cost £220million. Transport for London (TfL) or the Government would have to foot most of the bill for Kingston.

TfL's present business plan, which includes parts of Croydon, Tooting and Sutton, does not include Kingston.

The idea of bringing a tram route to Sutton has already generated much public support, according to Theo Spring, South London Trams' marketing director, who said: "Every time I go to Sutton people say they are begging for the trams to come they're desperate for them."

Sutton's lead councillor for transport and the environment, Colin Hall, said Tramlink would have numerous benefits if introduced to Sutton, both financial and environmental.

He said: "Trams seem to provide a higher quality form of public transport that is attractive to a wider group of people."

Sutton's businesses were consulted as to whether or not they were in favour of trams and most of the feedback was positive, according to Sutton Council.

A spokesman for Transport for London (TfL), the body responsible for delivering the Mayor of London's transport plans, said the proposed Sutton extension was not in the current investment programme of projects given the green light.

He said another spending round will start in 2006 when TfL will be bidding for appropriate funding from central Government.

"Once we know the outcome of this process, we will then make decisions on which projects go ahead over the following years," he added.

"However, decisions to proceed with schemes depend on a range of issues and not just affordability how much extra capacity it delivers, other schemes going ahead nearby, population growth projections."

Kingston's town centre manager Graham McNally said: "Study has shown that trams seem to be the only thing possible to get some 20 million people out of their cars it has worked in Manchester and other areas." But he conceded: "The Government has put an end to other tram projects that were way ahead of ours, so while I would continue to support proposals for Kingston, I don't think it is going to happen in the near or medium future."

A spokesman for Kingston Council added: "There was initially a lot of enthusiasm at the thought of trams coming to Kingston. But it just wasn't financially viable. Some of those problems would still remain, and although it's a long way off we are discussing the proposal in detail and still have aspirations of bringing trams to the borough.