THE mayor of London has vowed to push through the stalled tram extension to Crystal Palace, despite no concrete plans on how to pay for it.

The much vaunted £170m plan was abandoned in November 2008 due to lack of funding, alongside £3bn of other transport projects across the capital.

But Boris Johnson confirmed on a tram trip yesterday (March 24) the scheme was back on the agenda ahead of the looming mayoral elections in 2012.

He said: "It's always been our ambition to extend the Croydon Tramlink.

"Today we announce we're going to extend it to Crystal Palace.

"Going on the tram today shows what a fantastic mode of transport it really is.

"We'll look at the costings . . . and we'll look at making more detailed plans."

Previous plans for the scheme were scrapped in November 2008 in favour of improving the Tube, introducing a modern Routemaster bus, and funding the Crossrail project to build a new east-west railway across London.

Mr Johnson's Labour opponent in the mayoral race, Ken Livingstone, has already promised to get the extension back on track after criticising the Mayor for dropping the scheme.