An Underground City: Montreal

The people in Montreal like being different. In other Canadian cities, like Toronto and Vancouver, the first language is English. In Montreal, people’s first language is French. While other people in Canada are unhappy with the very cold and long winters, Montrealers are happy. Their city is also very cold in winter and has lot of snow on the ground for three or four months every year, but that isn’t a big problem. Why? Because there’s an underground city in Montreal. There are 32 kilometres of tunnels under the city’s centre and some of them are fifty years old. The tunnels link ten train stations, two bus stations, 1,200 offices, 2,000 shops, 200 restaurants, forty banks, forty cinemas, seven hotels, two universities any many other important buildings. 500,000 people use the tunnels every day to escape the winter.‘My family’s flat has got an entrance to the underground city,’ says art student Amy. ‘In winter, I never go outside on my journey to university.’The underground city isn’t popular with everyone. Winter is Ben’s favourite season. ‘There are lots of fantastic winter sports in Canada, like skiiing, snowboarding. At the weekend I’m always outside. I hate being inside in winter’, says Ben.