Quote:
Originally Posted by j0hn0
but if there was a depot in say Prestwich or by the airport, the council could make all shops on the tram routes sign up to an aggreement that has all their stock delivered to the depot on the outskirts.
Considering delivery slots for every store vary greatly, this may help consolidate them into one manageable weekly or monthly payment 
Gets all the HGVs off the road for those particular shops and out of the city centre. Deliveries can be made either early morning or in the evening, effectively making the city centre a controlled shopping area |
I can't quite see HOW this would work. If companies' stock is delivered to a depot on the outskirts, as suggested, then I'm guessing that you mean that goods can then be transported via freight tram(s) to any number of shops etc throughout the city. I don't wish to put a damper on this, but there are only THE tram lines - what I mean is that a freight tram would have to be using the same track as the regular trams; if these have a regularity of, say every 10 minutes, that only gives a very short window for loading/unloading purposes, as the freight tram would be blocking the line used (most importantly) by the passenger trams. It would be a bit of a racetrack at best; after just ONE quick delivery, the passenger tram would be right behind the freight tram, which would have to get out of the way. How? This would require a huge number of passing loops, which would then themselves need to be made no parking areas, not to mention expensive to install. Even without loops, let's not forget that tramlines occupy one side of the road - if a tram was unloading, it would occupy that side of the road for a far greater period of time tha a tram stopping to pick up/set down passengers. Traffic would be held up throughout the route. It's simply not feasible. Sorry.
