IT WAS meant to be a jolly light-hearted assignment that would cheer up readers.

But reporter Tom Pochciol returned to the office one afternoon this week with a face like thunder after it emerged I had sent him on a wild kiss-chase.

Part of my job as editor is to try to come up with novel story ideas to create interest.

But recently my deputy editor, Holly Robinson, has been on at me for being too serious and running too many council articles.

So I was terribly excited to be given the chance to lighten up when I received a press release entitled “Virgin’s cancelled kissers welcome aboard Chiltern’s love train”.

This followed a piece in the national papers about a no kissing sign in a taxi rank outside the railway station in Warrington.

Apparently, people can only give each other goodbye smooches in designated areas – so none of the scenes made famous by the film Brief Encounter there.

Now Chiltern Railways has cleverly latched on to the story and come up with a twist to put one over on Virgin.

Chiltern is campaigning to find the most romantic customers and is encouraging people to pucker up. It’s also putting its money where its kisser is by offering a super duper prize into the bargain for the best lip-smacking embrace.

Kirsteen Robertson from the Chiltern marketing department, said: “Railway stations are romantic places; they are where fond farewells and emotional reunions take place, where relationships start with a glance and even, in the case of our Marylebone station last November, where one passenger will propose to another over the public address system!

“So our passengers are more than welcome to share a kiss in our stations. To show that we are dedicated to spreading a little love around our stations, we are asking our passengers to send us a photograph of them kissing at one of our stations.”

The couple in the winning photograph will win free travel to and from London and a romantic champagne afternoon tea at London’s Landmark Hotel.

As soon as the release arrived, I packed Tom off with a camera and notebook, and we obtained special permission from Chiltern Railways to stand at High Wycombe station to speak to customers.

But the plan backfired because Tom – an affable and normally successfully reporter – couldn’t find anyone to join in ‘the fun’.

“I stood there for an hour feeling like an idiot asking passers-by of opposite sex if they were couples and it turned out to my embarrassment they weren’t; they just happened to be walking together,” he admitted.

“This happened a couple of times and I couldn’t find anyone at all in the station who remotely looked like they were going to kiss their sweetheart goodbye. It was a complete waste of time.”

So is the spirit of romance dead in High Wycombe, or does anyone wish to kiss for the cameras and get on track to win Chiltern’s prize?

* Prove Tom wrong by sending me in appropriate photographs to scohen@london.newsquest.co.uk and I’ll pass them on to Chiltern Railways.