Abstract: Urban subway tunnel construction at home and abroad has shown different development trends, such as long distance, diversified geological conditions and complex construction environment, posing great challenges to the adaptability of existing mechanized construction methods. Multi-mode shield/TBM tunnelling equipment has good adaptability in complex environments, making it useful to solve the challenges in selecting the tunnellling equipment for composite stratum by reducing the construction risks while improving the tunnelling efficiency. This paper is a discussion of the adaptation of different types of multi-modal tunnelling equipment to different strata and working characteristics. Also, this paper proposes the principles and methods for the selection of multi-mode tunnelling equipment through statistical analysis of key stratigraphic parameters based on typical engineering cases at home and abroad where multi-mode tunnelling equipment is used. Furthermore, paying comprehensive consideration to the geological conditions, duration, cost and environmental impact, this paper constructs a comprehensive evaluation model of shield and TBM mode adaptability respectively, and determines the lower limit length of mode conversion with consideration to the duration and cost, before making modification of the interval mode. Finally, using the running tunnel of Shenzhen Metro Line 14 as an example, the research results verify the reasonableness of the multimode tunnelling equipment selection method. The research results can provide references for the promotion and application of multi-mode tunnelling equipment in China′s tunnel engineering and adaptability evaluation.