A VIRGIN Trains worker who is desperate to trace her missing fiancé has appealed to rail staff throughout the UK to help in her search.

Robert 'Robbie' Smith, 57, a Virgin West Coast revenue protection manager, has been missing for more than ten weeks but has failed to contact his fiancee Janice Aubrey.

Janice, who like Robbie is based in Wolverhampton, told Railnews: "I just want him to ring me and tell me he is all right. Everyday I think I might hear something. It's the not knowing that is the worst.

"If anyone has seen him or think they have seen him, please can they let me know."

The part-time customer service assistant has put up posters showing Robbie's face and description in stations run by Virgin Trains and other companies in the hope that a rail worker might recognise him.

She is also appearing on a BBC television programme about missing people, with an interview recorded in Blackpool, a favourite place for the couple.

She last saw him on Tuesday 4 March, and reported him missing to West Midlands Police two days later.

Robbie, a rail worker for more than 30 years, had recently undergone operations for two types of cancer but is in remission.

Janice said: "We have been engaged for a few years and were planning to marry in the future. I am now his next of kin because he is estranged from his family.

"Robbie had been to his local pub - The Moon Under the Water - during the evening of 5 March. CCTV showed he left at 12.30am.

"I know he went home because when I let myself into his flat the following day I found things like his spare car keys, jewellery, his mobile phone and other personal objects. I also have his passport, driving licence and cheque book."

A Virgin rail worker has told Janice that he thought he saw Robbie getting on to a train on 6 or 7 March at Birmingham New Street, and he has also been sighted in Wolverhampton.

"Robbie knows a lot of railway workers all over the country so hopefully someone will recognise him," said Janice, who has her own home in Wolverhampton.

The distraught rail worker added: "It's a real mystery, this is not like him. Virgin managers have been very helpful to me at this time, they have been very understanding."

She has placed posters at stations including Wigan, Coventry, Blackpool, Birmingham International, Snow Hill, Birmingham and she will soon be placing them in Darlington and Liverpool.

Robbie was wearing a blue denim jacket, a green River Island parker coat, a grey tunic top with the words Weirdfish and tan coloured shoes.

He is 5ft 7ins tall, of slim build, with blue eyes and short grey hair with a moustache. He has a tattoo on his arm of an Indian chief and another of a wizard on his chest.

Janice, who has worked for Virgin Trains for 15 years, said: "I have a feeling he might be travelling on cross-country trains where he is not known so well. He loves the countryside so that is where he might have headed."
 
She urged people to contact 0500 700 700, the Missing People Freefone service if they see Robbie.