"From my perspective, we were on the tracks before the barriers went down, the bus was already over the train tracks before the barriers went down, before the gates went down, I think," she said.

"I was looking up from my book and I felt him inching (the bus) forward, I didn't think anything of it but seconds later, people started reacting, everyone started to stand up."

Ms Jarvis said a woman on the bus yelled at the bus driver to open the doors to let them off when she saw the train signal flashing.

"We didn't really know what to do then there was a realisation that we had to get off the bus.

"At that stage we could see the train coming, he inched forward as much as he could and he opened the bus and we were all able to get off," she said.