page_title: Hume Highway
section_title: Route
hierarchical_section_title: Hume Highway / Route
caption_attribution_description: English: Current Destination Sign on the Hume Highway heading Melbourne from Sydney.jpg
context_page_description: The Hume Highway, inclusive of the sections now known as the Hume Freeway and Hume Motorway, is one of Australia's major inter-city national highways, running for 840 kilometres between Melbourne in the southwest and Sydney in the northeast. Upgrading of the route from Sydney's outskirts to Melbourne's outskirts to dual carriageway was completed on 7 August 2013.
  From north to south, the road is called the Hume Highway in metropolitan Sydney, the Hume Motorway between the suburbs of Edmondson Park and Prestons and Berrima, the Hume Highway elsewhere in New South Wales and the Hume Freeway in Victoria. It is part of the Auslink National Network and is a vital link for road freight to transport goods to and from the two cities as well as serving Albury-Wodonga and Canberra.
  The main alternative route between Sydney and Melbourne is the Princes Highway/Princes Freeway/Princes Motorway route which follows the coast for most of its length.
context_section_description: At its Sydney end, the Hume Highway begins at Parramatta Road, in Summer Hill. This route is numbered as A22. The first 31 kilometres (19 mi) of the highway was known as Liverpool Road until August 1928, when it was renamed as part of the Hume or Great Southern Highway, as part of the creation of the NSW highway system. Sections of the highway through Sydney's suburbs continue to be also known by its former names of Liverpool Road, Sydney Road and Copeland Street (through Liverpool).
  The main Hume Highway effectively commences at the junction of the M5 South Western Motorway and the Westlink M7 at Prestons. Heading eastbound, the M5 provides access to Sydney Airport and the CBD; while the M7 provides access to Newcastle and Brisbane bypassing the Sydney CBD. Both of these routes are tolled.
  Other than sections within the urban areas of Sydney and Melbourne, the Hume Highway is dual carriageway or expressway standard for its full length in Victoria and New South Wales.
  Although the full length of the Hume Highway is dual carriageway (with at-grade intersections and restricted entry from adjoining land), there are considerable lengths of the highway which are of full freeway standard. Most of these sections are bypasses of the larger towns on the route, where the need to deviate the route to construct the bypass made it practical to deny access from adjoining land and thus provide full freeway conditions. In addition to these bypasses the sections between Casula (in southwestern Sydney) and Berrima (built 1973–92), and Broadford to Wallan (1976), which were both constructed as major deviations, are also of full freeway standard. The entire section in Victoria is categorised as a freeway by government roads authority VicRoads, although a few intersections along the route are not yet grade-separated. The speed limit on the full length of the highway is 110 km/h (68.4 mph).
  As the Hume Freeway approaches Melbourne at the suburb of Craigieburn, 27 kilometres (17 mi) north of the Melbourne central business district, the Craigieburn Bypass now diverts the Hume Freeway (and the M31 designation) to the east of the former route, to terminate at the Western Ring Road/Metropolitan Ring Road (M80). This bypass was opened in two stages, in December 2004 and December 2005.
  At its Melbourne end, the original alignment of the Melbourne–Sydney route followed Royal Parade northward from where it begins at its intersection with Elizabeth Street and Flemington Road. Royal Parade becomes Sydney Road at Brunswick Road and then became the Hume Highway itself at Campbellfield. This ceased to be the designated route of the Hume Highway in 1992, with the completion of Stage 1 of the Western Ring Road, at which point the designation of the southbound highway was truncated. The former highway south from the Western Ring Road to Elizabeth Street is route is now numbered as State Route 55 and is now officially called Sydney Road.
caption: Distances to destinations through the Hume Highway heading southbound using the current M31 route number  Distances to destinations along the highway from Sydney using the former National Highway 31 route marker (which was replaced by the M31 route number)
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