Concept
Hume Highway, inclusive of the sections now known as Hume Freeway and Hume Motorway, is one of Australia's major inter-city national highways, running for 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 Hume Highway in metropolitan Sydney, Hume Motorway between the Cutler Interchange and Berrima, Hume Highway elsewhere in New South Wales and 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. It is therefore considered to be Australia's longest highway in terms of its dual-carriageway standard retaining the M or motorway alphanumeric. At its Sydney end, Hume Highway begins at Parramatta Road, in Ashfield. This route is numbered as A22. The first of the highway was known as Liverpool Road until August 1928, when it was renamed as part of Hume 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 (the latter two bypassing Liverpool's CBD). The main Hume Highway/Motorway effectively commences at the junction of the M5 South-West Motorway and the Westlink M7 at . 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. The section of Hume Motorway between Prestons and Narellan Road was previously known as South Western Freeway (not to be confused with the M5 South-West Motorway) and was allocated route number F5. While this section later officially became known as Hume Highway, it continued to be referred to as the F5 Freeway until the early 2010s due to its renaming to M31 Hume Motorway in 2013.