It was slated to be an emblem of change. When the Victorian government announced it would proceed with the West Gate Tunnel project in 2015 that was proposed by toll road operator Transurban a year prior, it seemed that the Melbourne freight sector was finally set to experience relief.
Over the past decade, the project has become a notorious talking point for the local transport industry as the initially proposed $10 billion set of tunnels flowing under the West Gate Bridge and Yarraville has since blown out when it comes to both cost and timeline.
Slated to finally be unveiled at the end of this year, more than three years after it was initially scheduled for completion, the West Gate Tunnel promises to take more trucks off the road, including ones driven by LJR Transport’s Leonard Rainback.
“I’ve been in the industry for 33 years after I first started driving in 1992,” he told OwnerDriver.
“I’ve had extensive experience with various companies and first started driving for Toll Group around 2000, meaning I’ve been working in the Footscray, Brooklyn, Yarraville and Altona areas for many years now.
“Us truck drivers in the area have had a pretty good run, but now this tunnel is set to be the biggest issue that we’ve faced in recent memory.”
Leonard’s daily runs see him frequent the Port of Melbourne precinct, meaning he’s often using the roads surrounding the tunnel. While the project was designed to initially ensure truckies like Leonard don’t have to use local roads in the area that weren’t built for trucks, the toll prices and announcement of impending 24-hour truck bans on six nearby roads means there’s an issue for owner drivers.
Instead of alleviating congestion and allowing the roughly 2,000 trucks that travel through the area each day to bypass local roads and avoid traffic, the soaring costs of the toll road mean Leonard and other drivers may be faced with the difficult choice of either using the road and potentially running out of money or sticking to one of the only non-banned roads in the inner-west that will face double the truck traffic.
“The impact of the tunnel opening is going to be so huge for truck drivers in the area – I believe there’ll be a certain percentage of owner drivers and other company truck drivers who might leave the industry because of it,” he says.
“For me, my main concern is getting stuck in traffic and the congestion that will create backlogs on certain roads. How do you fit two litres of milk into a one litre bottle? That’s what it’ll be like for trucks on these roads, it gets difficult.
“I’ve heard that drivers carting empty containers may leave the industry due to not being able to afford the toll e-tags, as some only get paid $20-$25 per box that they move. I also know a couple of blokes who are concerned about the congestion. Personally, I get paid a load incentive rate that means I get paid by the load, not by the hour. If I take extra time in traffic line-ups due to this tunnel, it means I get paid less.
“This could impact me quite significantly – if we lose a lot of time trying to get from the terminal to the depot, I could potentially lose $200-$300 per day. Time is money.”
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Leonard won’t be the only driver facing some new headaches when the tunnel officially opens to traffic later this year. When the tunnel, which runs from the West Gate Freeway to the Port of Melbourne and offers an alternative to the West Gate Bridge, becomes an option for trucks, the state government will also introduce 24-hour truck bans to ensure that trucks use the freeway and don’t go through local streets.
While exemptions will apply for trucks that have local origins and destinations, trucks won’t be able to use sections of Francis Street, Somerville Road, Buckley Street, Moore Street, Blackshaws Road and Hudsons Road. According to Victoria’s Big Build, the tunnel will take over 9,000 trucks a day off local streets, while the bans will prevent an extra 5,000 trucks from taking ‘rat runs’ to avoid the West Gate Freeway.
From the state government’s perspective, it says that trips to the port will be up to 13 minutes quicker when using the tunnel, with the strengthened freeway able to handle heavier loads. By providing new ramps and roads that are designed to minimise braking and acceleration, trucks carrying dangerous goods or over-height trucks that are banned from tunnels can still avoid residential streets courtesy of new Hyde Street ramps.
While the government says special tolls will apply for frequent users and port shuttle trips, the Liberal Party of Victoria says the toll cap of up to $178 each day in tolls to use the tunnel will cause an increase of truck traffic in the area. Its estimates suggest that, by 2031, truck traffic will double to around 4,700 heavy vehicles per day as drivers look to avoid the charge.
“Labor is taking Melbourne’s inner west for granted and aren’t listening to genuine concerns about noise and pollution that these trucks will still cause,” member for Western Metropolitan region Trung Luu told OwnerDriver.
“The original idea for the tunnel was to get trucks off local roads, but with the tolls being as high as up to a $178 cap per day for heavy vehicles, companies could quickly be paying thousands of dollars quickly just to operate, meaning they’ll turn to the few local roads that don’t have truck bans.”
While Linkt has the pricing for the toll road as up to $49.45 for a heavy commercial vehicle to use the West Gate Freeway over a 24-hour period, this increases to $142.65 for long heavy commercial vehicles using both West Gate and CityLink in the same time period. A single trip during the day is only $19.78 for heavy commercial vehicles and $29.67 for long heavy commercial vehicles, or $13.19 and $19.78 respectively at night, while the toll cap sits as high as $178 per day for long heavy commercial vehicles using the tunnel, ramps and freeway multiple times per day.
Outside of the impact on truck drivers, Trung has also spoken to many local residents who are still concerned about the pollution, health and noise risks that come with truck traffic using roads in the inner west in order to avoid the tunnel.
“The inner west is already suffering from some of the worst truck congestion and air pollution in the state, so the tunnel could create a concerning increase in both,” he says.
“I’ve raised these concerns in state parliament and gotten very little response. As populations and truck movements grow, it’s mind-blowing that this issue isn’t being fixed.”
The problem has also raised the ire of Victorian shadow ports and freight minister Roma Britnell, who has bemoaned the government’s planned closure of the Sunshine rail freight corridor. This closure threatens the future of a significant logistics hub at Deer Park that Britnell says could remove 125,000 trucks from Victorian roads each year and create more than 23,000 jobs.
“The government has been told that investing in a simple 400-metre rail link workaround at the Sunshine Superhub could preserve the freight junction but they are doing nothing,” she says.
“Labor’s lack of interest in the west will mean freight trains from Ballarat will now be forced to travel an extra 47 kilometres via Geelong to reach the Port of Melbourne.
“This is inefficient, economically reckless and will put more trucks on the road through west Melbourne suburbs.”
In response, a spokesperson from the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) says it believes there will still be an overall reduction in trucks travelling on roads in the inner west.
The spokesperson says the department will be monitoring and reviewing traffic levels on Millers Road before and after the West Gate Tunnel project opens this year to manage the changes to the surrounding roads.
“The West Gate Tunnel project will transform the way people move across the west, while delivering a vital alternative to the West Gate Bridge,” the spokesperson told OwnerDriver.
“We are making investments to improve our freight network, including rezoning land in Brooklyn and Tottenham to move container parks to better-connected industrial land, leasing the Old Melbourne Market site on Footscray Road for container storage and truck marshalling and, with the Commonwealth, we’ve invested in the Port Rail Shuttle network to shift more freight by rail.”
The department also says the minister for roads and road safety Melissa Horne is seeking advice and modelling from her department on how curfews on Millers and Williamstown Roads could work and be enforced to limit truck traffic.
Along with the tunnel, the department says upgrades to the West Gate Freeway will provide time savings on key routes, meaning less wear-and-tear on heavy vehicles compared to alternative routes, saving operators time and money.
For the likes of the Victorian Liberals and drivers like Leonard, there’s a shared solution they want to see actioned. Instead of closing rail freight corridors and logistics hubs in Melbourne’s north that can connect to the port, they want to see freight moved by rail from the Port of Melbourne and taken outside of the city to allow trucks to run with less traffic.
“There are terminals like the Somerton Intermodal Terminal, owned by Aware Super, that could bring freight in from the port and also access the Inland Rail,” Leonard says.
“I view this as a great alternative for the inner city precinct. We could relocate everything up north and then there’s no traffic, toll road or pollution issues with trucks and residents in the inner west.
“It may be a bold move, but in my view, the future of freight trucking in Melbourne lies up north.”
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