More than 700 jobs are to go at National Express as the train, coach and bus company reported a downturn in travelling by the public.

In line with recent warnings from South West Trains, Southern, Southeastern and Virgin Trains, National Express said the boom years on the railways are waning.

It revealed that revenue growth on its East Anglia services into and out of Liverpool Street had slipped to 5.5% from the previously reported 6%, while its Kings Cross-based East Coast Main Line operations fell to 9.5% from 11%.

Chief executive Richard Bowker has ordered a £15 million cost-cutting exercise which will see more than 700 jobs go, hundreds of them in its East Anglian rail business and others in back office functions across the group.

Bowker said the cuts are to prepare for a downturn which he admitted he cannot quantify.

"We can't say what 2009 will look like simply because we do not know," he said.

"We have seen some softening but history is no guide to us.

"We think it will be different this time as the industry is very different from the recession that British Rail had to deal with in the early 1990s.

"As far as our passengers are concerned road congestion issues are very real and environmental concerns are still very much there."

Bowker said National Express is to close its heavily lossmaking Dot2Dot London hotel-to-airport minibus taxi business by the end of January if a buyer is not found.