road-rail

English

Adjective

road-rail (not comparable)

1. Relating to both road(s) and railway(s).
   • 1962 December, “Talking of Trains: More maps”, in Modern Railways, page 362:

     [...] the main road movement is alongside the most heavily occupied sections of railway, so that road-rail competition is inescapable.

2. Accommodating both road and railway.

   a combined road-rail bridge

   • 2021 October 20, Paul Stephen, “Leisure and pleasure on the Far North Line”, in RAIL, number 942, page 49:

     A proposal to construct it as a road/rail bridge was considered but ultimately rejected on the grounds of cost.

3. Occurring between road and rail.
   • 1959 September, “The Re-appraisal of the B.R. Modernisation Plan”, in Trains Illustrated, page 409:

     Intensive study is being devoted to finding a cheaper and quicker means of road-rail transfer and to improving the payload/tare weight of containers, and there will be more containers of special types.

4. Of a vehicle, able to be driven on both road and rail, being fitted with retractable railway wheels.
   • 2023 November 29, Paul Clifton, “West is best in the Highlands”, in RAIL, number 997, page 40:

     "We have some areas on the Mallaig line where you have no road access at all," Phil explains. "This is where the road-rail vehicles come into their own."

Derived terms

• road-railer

References

• “road-rail”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• railroad