Campaigners in the west of Ireland are urging that a light rail network is created as a way of reducing car use around Galway Bay.
The campaign to create "Ireland's and possibly the world's first green light railway" was launched on 9 June 2008 and hopes that the trams can be powered by wind and hydro power.
The £160million Gluas project would have two routes – with a total of 13 miles of track – which would be operated by 17 environmentally friendly electrically powered trams.
The aim is to attract private finance as well as government and European grants.
The chairman of the campaign is Brendan Holland, a member of the Galway City Business Association.
He said that it was now not a case of whether Galway could afford a light rail system, but whether it could afford to be without one.
Also involved are Colm Grogan, senior partner of Fitzgerald & Grogan chartered accountants, Professor Lewis Leslie and Lincoln Shields of Trampower Ltd and surveyors Joseph Coyne Ltd.
The idea took off after a workshop session in 2007 run by Professor Padraic O'Donoghue which led to the formation of a committee from a cross-section of those who attended.
In the United Kingdom there are increasing calls for speedier action on providing more trams and tram-trains.
Geoff Inskip, director general of Centro, said it was important that modern tram and light rail systems are fully integrated within wider transport networks.
He also called for a full trial of tram-trains, rather than the recently announced partial trial.
He said: "We need to do more, and more quickly, on tram-train trials, in particular to resolve the remaining issues around track sharing with traditional heavy rail.
"At present the debate on tram-train seems confused. We need to be clearer about how the current trials relate to the future options for exclusive running, parallel running, and mixed running with traditional heavy rail."
He added: "Britain is bottom of the league table of major European countries when it comes to light rail investment. While we in the UK have been talking about it, other European cities have been building it."
www.gluas.com/
www.trampower.co.uk