First it was leaves on the line, then the wrong kind of snow – and now the freezing winter weather is bringing a new misery for rail users.

Some doors on trains running between Leicester and Loughborough have seized up in sub-zero conditions, causing passengers to miss their stops.

Travellers have found themselves trapped on trains because the doors refused to open when the passengers reached their destination.

By the time they realised what was happening or managed to find a guard, the train had already pulled away from the platform and could not be stopped until the next station.

A spokeswoman for East Midlands Trains, which runs the route, said: "It appears that during the recent spell of extremely cold weather, water has got into part of the mechanism of the sliding doors on our Class 156 trains and has caused some of the doors to become frozen."

Janine Smith found herself going on a longer journey than she bargained for when travelling from Leicester to Syston on Saturday evening.

"The train pulled in at Syston station and I pushed the button to open the doors, but nothing happened," she said.

"The other doors seemed to be working but mine wasn't.

"By the time I got to another door, it had been closed and the train was pulling away.

"I couldn't see a guard on the train to complain to. I'm sure there was one but he must have been in the other carriage.

"I had to hang around in Sileby and wait for the next train back to Syston. It was pretty cold, so it wasn't much fun."

Stephen Abbott, secretary of regional rail users' group Travel Watch, called on East Midlands Trains to take measures to ensure customers did not get trapped.

"If a door is known to be dodgy, they should put a sticker on it so passengers are aware of the problem," he said.

"When it is icy, an announcement could be made for all the passengers to alight from one door. The guard can then be sure everyone has managed to get off."

However, Mr Abbott praised the way East Midlands Trains had coped in the cold conditions.

Despite the challenges posed by the weather, most services had run to time.

The East Midlands Trains spokeswoman said: "If our staff report faulty doors on any of our trains, measures are taken to resolve the problem.

"This includes either sending an engineer to the train or meeting the train on arrival in Nottingham to release the affected door.

"The recent spell of cold weather has seen some of the worst conditions in many years.

"We apologise to passengers who may have been affected by the issue, but we would like to reassure people we believe this has only happened on a very small number of occasions and is not a recurring issue."