TfL are hoping people will transfer to the Bakerloo at Elephant or Waterloo to get to Trafalgar Square or Regent Street, as they probably won't be able to change onto one of the bus routes going further because of overcrowding. In any case, for longer distance passengers they'll be 'out of time' for the Hopper fare. Some of those passengers may just seek an alternative to the 53 in the shape of SouthEastern Rail, never to return, and a once great bus route gets ground into the dust.
You're absolutely right - the creation of a new Kings Cross to Waterloo link was something that was insisted on by Peter Hendy when he headed London Buses. Given the lack of a direct Underground link, it could be considered an aberration that the link is now destroyed to 'save' a bus or two in the proclaimed 'reason' of reducing overbussing on the Euston Road. It should be added that the 59 was only the most recent of the routes providing this link: I used the then-new 239 to get to work that way when it replaced the northern section of the 196. Other routes over the years have included the 68, 188 and iirc a brief Red Arrow fling. Ken Livingstone's South London tram route would have embraced the two as well.
I think they are probably just going to increase the fare hopper time for route combinations that go through waterloo /Kings Cross.
The only step-free line at Waterloo is the Jubilee line. The Underground route to Kings Cross using the cross-platform interchange at Oxford circus is not suitable for those who cannot manage the large gaps on the curved Bakerloo line platforms & long escalators at Waterloo. I personally would never contemplate using the Bakerloo line anymore at Waterloo due to the large gaps. The official step-free route is to use the Jubilee line and change at Green Park. However this involves a long walk to access the Victoria line lifts at Green Park. The 59 bus was far more convenient when taking luggage between Waterloo and Kings Cross. Last time I used Waterloo East to London Bridge & caught a Cambridge Thameslink service to avoid using the tube altogether. Though had an issue when the only lift to access the Thameslink platforms at London Bridge was out of service.
Of course it is not necessary for every London NR terminal station to have a direct bus connection with each of the others, which I take as being your point. Waterloo hasn't had one with Paddington, for instance, within my memory, partly no doubt because many people coming from SW England wishing to travel to the West of England and Wales would opt to go via Reading, Bristol, Exeter and other more direct routes, whereas Waterloo to Kings Cross is a journey hundreds, maybe thousands, of longer distance rail passengers make every day and always had the direct connection until it was severed earlier this century, only to be restored at the behest of the top bods at TfL who were embarassed at the oversight. It is a relatively short distance that, in theory, like Victoria to Paddington should be almost as quickly achieved platform to platform by bus as by Underground, although I admit the authorities are making this as difficult as possible now with their infernal tinkering.
Wait, people on here are actually defending TFL's decision to curtail the 59? The mind boggles.
Meanwhile, the Stagecoach Trident/QUOTE]
