Williamstown Road: Government confirms truck curfew when West Gate Tunnel opens

2 days ago 2

Trucks will not be allowed to use Williamstown Road on nights and weekends once the West Gate Tunnel opens to traffic later this year.

Victoria’s freight minister used a brief, late night video on social media to deliver the news many inner-west residents had been waiting months to hear.

“It’s been a huge amount of work to get to the point where we can have truck bans on Williamstown road at nights and weekends,” Melissa Horne said.

“When the west gate tunnel opens, we are going to put curfews on Williamstown Road from 8pm to 6am, every single night, and from 8pm on Friday until 6am Monday,” she elaborated in the video.

Residents had been worried that “punishing” new road tolls on the West Gate Tunnel would incentivise truck drivers to limit their costs by using Williamstown Road instead.

Horne, the member for Williamstown, added: “Thank you Department of Transport team and Katie Hall MP for your work. This is a game changer for the inner west.”

“We will have more to tell you over the next week, but this is one of the proudest things I’ve achieved as an MP,” said Hall, the member for Footscray.

In September, residents of the inner west told this masthead that curfews were needed to prevent truck drivers seeking to avoid tolls using Williamstown Road as an alternative.

Advocacy body the Maribyrnong Truck Action Group also took to social media to celebrate, with the unnamed author pleased that the curfew would be enforced by cameras: “This has taken a huge community campaign for almost a decade, since the West Gate Tunnel was first announced,” the wrote.

When the West Gate Tunnel opens - an exact date is yet to be specified - tolls of up to $178 will apply to heavy vehicles each day after an initial free-toll period in January.

Prior to Saturday’s curfew announcement, modelling produced by the West Gate Tunnel Project in 2017 predicted that truck traffic would roughly double to 4700 heavy vehicles a day on Williamstown Road by 2031.

As recently as March 2025, Horne had written in letters seen by The Age that there were no plans to implement a night curfew, as this would cause freight efficiency issues.

With Sophie Aubrey.