on the flat

on the flat

1. (UK) On level ground.
2. On the same level, at grade.
   • 1959 November, “L.T. and E.R. developments in East London”, in Trains Illustrated, page 529:

     Another connection to be removed in September was that from the North London Line to the Tilbury route at Bromley, which crossed the District Line on the flat.

   • 2025 October 1, Philip Haigh, “Winners and losers in the new ECML timetable”, in RAIL, number 1045, page 22:

     Aside from services running along the East Coast Main Line, the documents include East Midlands Railway's services from Matlock and Derby to Lincoln and Cleethorpes, because they cross the ECML on the flat at Newark. In the busiest weekday hour, 21 trains cross at Newark.

• flat crossing

• “on the flat” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “on the flat” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “on the flat”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “on the flat”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.