British and Dutch ministers are facing a rail showdown after it emerged the Netherlands has led an £80m rescue package to bankroll the loss-making activities of one of Britain’s biggest train networks.

Greater Anglia, which operates one in every 12 UK rail journeys and is majority owned by the Dutch state rail operator, is being forced to make crippling payments to the Department for Transport (DfT) - pushing its finances into the red.

The payments, which sources said could end up costing Greater Anglia hundreds of millions of pounds, are linked to a complicated clause contained within the franchise agreement.

The operator attacked the arrangement as a “flawed mechanism”. With tensions between Greater Anglia and DfT running high, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling is believed to have been drawn into the dispute.

Industry insiders have speculated Greater Anglia “could be the next east coast” - referring to the embarrassing re-nationalisation of the east coast main line earlier this year after more than £200m of losses were racked up.

Operating more than 1,300 train services every day Greater Anglia is a 60/40 joint venture between Abellio - a subsidiary of the Netherlands’ state operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) - and Japanese company Mitsui & Co.

Abellio won a nine-year deal to operate the East Anglian rail network in October 2016, fending off competition from UK listed transport companies National Express and First Group, in one the first rail awards by Mr Grayling. Industry sources said Abellio paid as much as “£1bn more” than rival offers.