Budynok Rad (Kryvyi Rih Metrotram)

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	Kryvyi Rih Metrotram
								Zarichna

								Elektrozavodska

								Vovnopriadilna

								Industrialna



								Maidan Pratsi


								Zhovtneva

								Miska Likarna

								Maidan Artema

								Dzerzhinska

								Budynok Rad

								Prospekt Metalurhiv

								Kiltseva

	edit

Image:Domsov5.jpg

Budynok Rad

Budynok Rad (Ukrainian: Будинок Рад; Russian: Дом Советов, Dom Sovetov; literally: House of Soviets) is a station on the Kryvyi Rih Metrotram. It opened on February 23, 1988 as part of the first segment of the second stage.

The station sits right in the centre of the city next to the city council, when it was opened there were delays with the construction of the other two stations, so to justify the system, a temporary shuttle service was organised with two three-car trams ferrying passengers between the city centre and the reversal ring on the Dzerzhinska station. On May 2, 1989, after the completion of the remaining two stations on the second stage, standard transit was possible and the shuttle service was discontinued.

The Budynok Rad along with its near-identical neighbour Prospekt Metalurhiv are the only stations that are built to the full Metro standard. The most obvious is that both have island platforms, and are built to the full length and size of a Metro system. The platforms have provisions to be raised (which is clearely obvious in the staircase arrangement).

The station also lacks an external vestibule, both of which are located underground on both ends of the platform with exits to the Nikolay Gogol Square. One of the biggest problems that arose with the construction of a Metro-type station and to be used for a tram came from models used by the Soviet Union, which have doors only on the left side, this meant that the direction had to alternate prior to arriving on the station (given the right-hand rail operation used in the USSR). As a result the tunnels cross before reaching the station and left-hand stretch continues after the station Prospekt Metalurhiv where they cross back to the standard right-hand arrangement

Constructively, the station is a typical single vault of a (Kharkov design). Decoratively, the two stations are also most extravagant, which is another trademark of ex-Soviet Metro systems. Whereas other stations make use of the architecture of the surface structure and arrange the interior to be aesthetic, this station is exactely the opposite. Red marble is used for sides and floor, the ceiling of the vault consists of a hexagonal honeycomb arrngement. Groups of three mosaics are present on both walls and are of a Soviet theme. Lighting comes from a series of lightbulbs installed in the centre of the hexagon on the apexal rows of the vault. However, for financial reasons, it is rarely that they are all turned on at once.