Some rebuilt ex-Amtrak P40s have already made it to northern Manitoba and are used in mixed freight/passenger service (not VIA).
I think you're confusing that with the future Airo trains that will be dual mode but will only be used for corridor service. They're being made by Siemens, but they're not Chargers, they're Airos, and they're a semi-permanently coupled trainset, not a locomotive. Or New Jersey Transit, which has some dual mode locomotives right now. Right now, anything that runs beyond the NEC has to change engines in either Washington or (for the Vermonter and Springfield trains) New Haven.
Thanks. It was the Airo I was thinking about, which is in the same family as the Charger... which is based off of the Vectron, which can be sold in Europe as a dual-mode diesel and pantograph loco.
But Amtrak is getting Diesel only Chargers (having one standard platform does make some sense) but they'll be able to accept traction power from behind - an APV passenger car, a battery hybrid, or potentially other sources in future.
The point wasn't about the engine change. It was about blocking the platform. The OP was saying that WAS handles engine changes that block that track for 30 minutes already, several times a day. Therefore, a two hour usage of a platform is not that much longer for just twice a day.
