The extension of Nottingham's tram network is one of many city projects that have been discussed for years without much confidence as to whether it will ever happen or not. Sitting firmly alongside ideas like building a fourth car crossing over the Trent, expanding the NET network has seemed an increasingly unlikely prospect to some.

Messages from the network's boss in recent years, particularly the line a few years ago that NET would have "run out of cash" without a major financial restructure, have done little to dampen the idea that extending it was nothing more than a pipe dream. The news from the East Midlands mayoral authority this week on a £300,000 study into extending the NET network is a significant moment then.

For the first time in around five years, serious steps are about to be made on the road to getting Nottingham's trams further out of the city centre. East Midlands Airport, the Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station and even Derby city centre are among the dizzying array of possibilities that have been discussed in the years since the last serious work was done on expansion.

The East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) though, which will commission the new study, has mentioned Gedling, the Fairham Pastures development and potential housing at Chetwynd Barracks as being among the possibilities. Yet before any of those become a serious proposal in terms of a sustainable future for Nottingham's trams, bosses will first have to fix some fundamental........

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