Are you unaware of the management problems at Lothian Buses? They are very real and very damaging. The only 'integration' is that you can use bus tickets on the tram - and PR videos to tell us how successful TfE has been.
I have no idea what you mean by 'all bus services are a single line.' My line (to SW Edinburgh) is adversely impacted by the tram line to the west..
It's hardly 'only' that a range of tickets and smart cards allow unlimited travel across both. And most stops allow interchange to buses, the two rail interchanges were also designed to have cross-platform bus interchange.
What I was referring to was why are people so determined that a single tram line can't form part of an integrated transport system, yet the bus system is just a collection of single line bus routes.
A post hoc argument, I think. Without having some real numbers to crunch, it is impossible to say that there is a connection between increased bus usage and the tram. By and large bus usage has been increasing steadily for years in what is, after all, a growing city. We know, for example, that it has been a good year for tourism and we had a mild winter last year, which can make a difference. There has been a lot of promotion of season tickets which can increase passenger journey numbers as people hop on and off more.
For the trams to increase bus usage it would require people who were not using the buses previously to start making bi-modal journeys. This does not seem likely on a large scale when most areas of the city are not served by the tram. Alternatively, people start going by bus because the bus service has improved because of reduced congestion thanks to the trams (I don't think so).
Perhaps, but if the bus passengers are just increasing due to continuing upward trend, then that means the tram patronage is 100% new trips. Obviously not and it's a mixture, but to question whether that shows a positive tram effect or not is pushing it a bit, surely. I really doubt the bus service would have observed a massive tram plus bus increase patronage jump without.
In the spirit of scientific research I took a tram yesterday, about 1630, from SAS to Haymarket. Slightly over 10 minutes, then it waited at Haymarket for more than a minute after completing loading/unloading. There were plenty seats available throughout, I would estimate no more than 50 passengers, which is not great for that time of day. To me this demonstrates the lack of residential traffic to and from the area between the city centre and the western commercial districts. To be fair there were more passengers on a tram arriving from the west, who presumably would have been commuters.
Cutting off Leith was a big loss, which is one the highest density populations in the city. But if you're inclined to be unmoved by only 50 people in that 8 minute window, think about how you'd rather those 50 people travelled. In 50 cars? In a bus, which may add a good few minutes to service time? Or not bother at all? Certainly not unheard of for people to make city day trips (especially families using the £7.50 TfE day tickets) just because the trams are a bit more interesting than other ways.
Granted, for the cost it would be nice if the trams were comfortably full all day, but I'm not sure of any transport that is. But as well as extensions which the city will find easier to get than if it hadn't built anything, the trams tend to influence developer plans more than bus route so in the mean time increased activity along the route would be expected (as has happened already).
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If you compare the ~5 years pre-tram (when the works to build them were going on) with post-tram, then it has improved drastically
That's true, but it was bad before. Much of my support for the trams is based on bus experiences around 2006/07, when they had to negotiate pre-recession levels of traffic. At certain times of day it was quicker to walk.
Shandwick Place was a particularly long slog and now thanks to the trams, buses have the same priority there.
