Princes Freeway is a Australian freeway, divided into two sections, both located in Victoria, Australia. The freeway links Melbourne to Geelong in the west, and to Morwell in the east. It continues beyond these extremities as the Princes Highway towards Adelaide to the west and Sydney to the northeast. The freeway bears the designation M1. The western section linking Geelong and Melbourne is an important commuter and freight route between the two cities; the eastern section links Melbourne with the Latrobe Valley. The entire freeway is one of the busiest sections of rural highway in Victoria, used by large numbers of freight and commercial vehicles and provides access to tourist attractions in central and east Gippsland. It supports Victoria's rural industries and tourism. Route The western section (also known as Princes Freeway West or Geelong Road) starts at Corio, in the northern suburbs of Geelong and heads north-east as a six-lane dual-carriageway freeway, widening to eight lanes east of Werribee, and ends at the West Gate Interchange in Laverton, where the Western Ring Road and the old Geelong Road can be accessed by off-ramps. This section ranges from six lanes (three in each direction) between Geelong and Werribee, to ten lanes near the Ring Road interchange. Between 1999 and 2003 the section from Hoppers Crossing to Geelong was progressively widened to provide a third lane in each direction, in addition to a number of other safety upgrades being completed. Following this upgrade the speed limit was lowered from to in response to the freeway's poor safety record. The eastern section (also known as Princes Freeway East) starts from Narre Warren, as a six-lane dual-carriageway freeway, narrowing to four lanes just west of Pakenham. There are also several highway-standard at-grade intersections, most notably between Nar Nar Goon and Longwarry. These intersections are speed limited to , with the only section on the freeway from Longwarry to Morwell. However, traffic still travel through the towns of Yarragon and Trafalgar, therefore urban speed limits apply to these towns (between ) where the road reverts to the Princes Highway (though planning for bypasses of these towns are underway). The western and eastern sections are connected together through the Melbourne suburbs by West Gate Freeway, CityLink tollway and Monash Freeway. These five sections of road together constitute the route M1 through Melbourne, which is part of National Highway 1. On the urban section of Princes