When the first passengers touch on their myki cards at Melbourne’s new Arden station later this year, Christine Rodrigues will be there to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Rodrigues is the station master responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations at Arden, in North Melbourne, one of five new inner-city underground stations built along the $15 billion Metro Tunnel project.

Although an opening date has still not been confirmed, the Allan government insists passengers on the Sunbury and Cranbourne/Pakenham lines will be travelling through the nine-kilometre tunnel between Kensington and South Yarra by the end of this year.

For now, Rodrigues is part of the massive final program of testing and trials under way to prepare for the first day of operations.

That includes practising th

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