AROUND THE WORLD IN 6 WAYS; Follow Phileas Fogg taking the modern route.

Byline: By Brian McIver

IT'S the first thing that every lottery jackpot winner has on their things we must do list. But since author Jules Verne first came up with the brainwave of going Around The World In 80 Days, international trips have become a lot easier and a lot shorter.

A new film version of the classic novel is released next week, starring Steve Coogan and Jackie Chan, following Victorian adventurer Phileas Fogg's experiences.

Using steam train, hot-air balloon, carriage and ocean liner, Verne's book had his hero successfully managing to cross the world inside the time limit and amaze 19th-century travellers, who had thought the feat impossible.

But if Verne had lived today, he'd have a wider choice of travel and a much shorter deadline.

Planes, trains and automobiles are much faster and more accessible in the 21st-century.

You can fly right around the world twice in 80 hours, never mind days, if you choose the right routes, although sailing the circumference of the globe still takes a decent length of time.

We investigated the five most common forms of transport used today andone less common to find out just how long it would take to travel around the world today, starting from Glasgow, on the famous Fogg route.

The times and routes listed have been compiled using worldwide rail schedules, travel agents, flight times, the internet, road route planners and average distance time tables and do not include flight stop-over times, hold-ups, roadworks or sleeping breaks.

BY TRAIN10 days, 21 hours and 39 minutes

RAIL journeys require the inclusion of the Bering Straits and Atlantic air shortcuts, but do provide one of the most dramatic views of the eastern and western worlds.

Starting on the regular GNER or Virgin train from Glasgow to London, (approx. 5hrs, 45mins), you get the Eurostar to Brussels (2hrs, 31m) and then the Russian Railways sleeper to Moscow, going through Germany, which takes 37 hours and 49 minutes.

From the Russian capital, you board the Trans-Siberian Railway line and travel the breadth of the former Soviet nation, through the Ural mountains and Siberian wastelands until you arrive six days, five hours and 19 minutes later. It's one of the most dramatic railways in the world, but the longest train journey anywhere is now a lot more fun than during the Cold War Stalin made sure westerners were bombarded with communist propaganda.

The journey goes south east through Russia, passing through Irkutsk, Lake Baikal and Khabarovsk on its way to the Sea of Japan port Vladivostok. From there, you take a 13hrs, 30mins flight to Seattle (Alaska is closer, but has no train lines to the rest of the US), you then board an Amtrak liner and go via Chicago to New York City (2 days, 18 hrs, 5 mins) and fly direct to Glasgow from Newark (6hrs, 35 mins).

l Including flight times, the full journey takes 11 days, 17 hours and 44 minutes.

BY PLANE 2 days, 7 hours and 55 minutes

FOGG'S route took him down through mainland Europe to Egypt and on to the middle-east, through to the Pacific Rim, over to LA and across the US to New York, where he travelled to Liverpool and finally London.

You can fly direct to Australia and back within two days, but to follow the spirit of the challenge it takes a little longer to live up to Jules Verne's method, going via the Middle East and South East Asia, and back across US airspace.

The total flight time does not include any possible delays or stop-overs, but is taken from the direct flight duration from point to point no time for the duty free on this trip.

The fastest version of the round the-world trip would have you leaving from Glasgow to fly to London (1hr, 10 mins), then hopping on a flight to Dubai (7hrs), and connecting to Singapore (12hrs, 55 min) and then Hong Kong (3hrs, 45mins).

From the Chinese city state, head for Tokyo (4hrs, 15mins) and then on to Los Angeles (15hrs, 50mins) where you can get a direct flight back to London (10hrs, 20mins) and then return on the Heathrow shuttle up to Glasgow (1hr, 10mins).

ON FOOT178 days, 18 hours

IF seriously attempting to walk around the world, you would have to at least double, or possibly triple, this figure to take in breaks and sleep, but this figure takes into account the overall road distance of 12,871 being covered by the average human pace of three miles per hour. With a good pair of shoes and the endurance of Forrest Gump, you start by walking the length of the UK from Glasgow to Dover, where you will get a ferry to Calais and then you just basically trek eastwards.

Your route will go through France, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Belarus, into Russia and then will probably cut through the north of Mongolia and Ulan Bator, for directness of route along the way.

Once at the furthest eastern city on mainland Russia, get a flight to Anchorage, Alaska unless you can walk on water and then trek across the state into the Yukon, British Columbia and Alberta provinces of Canada.

Crossing into the States near Montana, head for New Jersey's Newark airport for a flight back to Glasgow.

Including flight time, the full journey takes 179 days, 16 hours and five minutes.

BY CAR 11 days, 3 hours and 43 minutes

DUE to the basic rules of needing a road and terra firma, you need to take two air shortcuts to connect across the Sea of Japan and the Atlantic Ocean in order to properly join up all the dots.

Leaving from Glasgow, you drive south to Dover where you get the ferry to Calais the Fogg route through Africa is less feasible by road, so it's wiser to go through Russia and towards Asia.

From northern France you head through Belgium and then through Germany heading for Berlin.

Cut through eastern Europe towards Moscow and take the main road east towards Irkutsk and Siberia, following the newly built eastern highways to Russia's most easterly city of Vladivostok, on the coast next to the Sea of Japan.

Taking a sneaky short cut (10hrs) flight from Russia to Anchorage, Alaska, you drive across to Canada, then mainland US at the Washington state border.

Heading east for New York, you can get a direct flight from Newark Airport to Glasgow (taking 6hrs, 35mins) and the total driving mileage is 12,871 miles following an average speed of 60mph on main motorway routes and 30mph in built up areas.

The full journey time, excluding flight times, is 11 days, 20 hours and 18 minutes.

BY SPACE SHUTTLE 1 hour, 38 minutes and 30 secsRAIL is the most romantic and air the fastest way to zoom around the world, but the coolest way to do a Phileas Fogg has to be via Nasa Space Shuttle.

Astronauts can do it in little more than an hour and a half, including take-off.

It takes the shuttle eight and a half minutes to reach orbit altitude of 57 miles high, then once the tanks have been jettisoned, can orbit the earth in 90 minutes in total.

BY BOAT 77 days, 5 hours

GOING by sea is the closest in spirit to Phileas Fogg's adventure, and certainly the closest in journey-type thanks to the Suez and Panama canals linking the world's great oceans and seas together.

Going from Scotland, the journey begins in Troon, where you can get the Seacat Ferry over to Belfast in 2hrs, 30mins to the closest big container ship port and the start of the most interesting leg of the lengthy trip.

Taking a freight ship, you can sail from Northern Ireland to the port of Jebel Ali in Dubai in 18 days, going through the straits of Gibraltar, past Italy and the Greek islands before chugging through the Suez Canal to the Red Sea and then the Persian Gulf.

From the United Arab Emirates, a ship will take you across the Indian Ocean and into the Pacific to Tokyo, Japan, in 21 days where you will connect across the Ocean to the Panamanian port Manzanilla (19 days).

Once you have slipped through the Panama Canal, it's back across the Atlantic to Felixstowe in 15 days, with another four days to get back to Belfast by cargo ship, and then the 2hrs 30 min ferry back to Troon.

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ADVENTURE: Steve Coogan and Jackie Chan star in the new 80 Days movie