Trams do occupy parts of the road, but the point of trams is to get people off the roads so problem solved.

Just think it through SFE, Dave Rowland has it exactly right.

Passing loops seem to be the right way to go. Look at the Altrincham line, it used to be four tracks to it would require little work to install here.
Using parking spaces will discourage the use of cars in the city.

They work in other places obviously proven is some of the pics I provided to there is not any real reason why ir should not work.
With signalling improvements you can have a higher frequnecy of trams.
One option is to link a freight and passenger tram and detach them when needed.

and....

make deliveries first thing in the morning and/or at night when frequency is less

Although

most shops want deliveries round the back don't they? :( maybe not such a good plan after all

aaah, but, it could also depend on the stock used for it.

have a depot, loading pallets onto the specially designed wagon with a motorised offload system.

It would make sure that the shop owners are there for the delivery every time as the freight tram would be timetabled

What about the Pic Vic tunnel?
They did build it, but filled it in. Why not dig it out and let the shops get freight from down there. Sounds expensive.

Well, you've answered your own question there...

This cournty built an Empire that spanned a quarter of the globe and in the process built 100s of thousands of miles of railways around the world. This is fairly cheap and easy compared to that.

I think SFE is living in the wrong era. Anyone got a time machine ?:D

That was back in history, when this country was wealthy, and we led the world in technology and manufacturing. Now there is no Empire, we're nothing more than a banana republic without bananas, manufacturing here is all but finished. Haven't you noticed that almost everything new on our railways comes from somewhere else? As for 'using parking spaces will discourage the use of cars in the city' - it will also discourage customers; in a lot of cases, some customers only need to pop into a shop for a couple of minutes. These customers don't want to be paying extortionate parking rates for two hours/whatever's the minimum, if they only need to be there for a few minutes. Ask any shop owners where parking restrictions have been implemented. Businesses have folded because of this. And, if there are areas in the city which are no-go zones for cars, then those cars do not go away, they're just somewhere else in the city. And what happens if/when the recipient of any delivered goods cannot be, for any reason (perhaps having been held up by a freight tram waiting for another recipient to arrive?) in the right place at the right time? Life is NOT clockwork - 'life is', as they say, 'what happens when you're making other plans.' This plan will NOT work. There are far too many ifs and buts; it would make things even worse, if you ask me. If towns & cities had been originally planned and built with all this planned beforehand, then it might have some chance of being viable. Not now though. :(:):confused: