The switch between coaches might have changed the fate of the passengers in the front and last coaches of the 13174 Agartala-Sealdah Kanchanjunga Express.

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A goods train at Rangapani, near New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, hit the express train from behind.

The direction reversal at Lumding in Assam meant that the coaches which were initially at the front became the rear end of the train, a news agency PTI report mentioned.

A passenger in a sleeper coach located in the middle of the rake told the news agency that the "affected coaches were in the front till Lumding."

He said that after the direction reversal, the affected four coaches — a general seating coach, two parcel vans, and a guard van — were at the rear end. The general seating coach was the most affected as it derailed and was thrown onto adjacent tracks, he added.

"Our train was moving very slowly when it reached Rangapani, a few kilometres from New Jalpaiguri," the passenger said.

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Another passenger described the impact as a sudden, sharp jerk accompanied by a loud sound, saying that the train stopped abruptly. On getting off the train, he saw that the goods train had hit their rake from behind.

"We were having tea when the train stopped suddenly with a jerk," he said. A pregnant woman, traveling with her family, said she fell off her seat upon impact.

"It felt like an earthquake. It took us some time to collect ourselves and understand what happened," news agency PTI the passenger as saying.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw visited the site of the train collision at Rangapani near in West Bengal on Monday afternoon and took stock of the situation. Ashwini Vaishnaw rode pillion on a motorbike for some distance to the accident site as the road was narrow for bigger vehicles to move.