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Has anyone seen/heard any official/semi-official reason why they aren't being used regularly on Michigan Service?
I suspect it's a snow issue given they are being operated elsewhere in the cold but not too snowy environments.
That one evening the Pere Marquette had 2 Chargers leading and both had failed before reaching Bangor.
Obviously that was anticipated as they had a P32 on the end that ended up pushing the train to Grand Rapids.

Could it be related to the fact that the Per Marquette crews wrecked a couple of them? Not irreparably, but...

They are currently trouble-shooting them to figure out why they fail in the snow. The Pere Marquette is currently the only Michigan service they can be used on due to the Chargers not being equipped with ITCS.

SD80MAC wrote:The Pere Marquette is currently the only Michigan service they can be used on due to the Chargers not being equipped with ITCS.

That makes for a good question to ask. Why haven't they equipped at least 1 for testing purposes?
Of course for now, the answer is they don't like snow and what would be the point.

I hope MDOT people are asking Siemens and IDOT people about when these issues are going to be taken care of.

At this point, I doubt Amtrak has anything more than minimal number of operable spares in their owned locomotive fleet.

Probably true of the Amtrak owned car fleet also with the exception of baggage cars and diners(Viewliners coming online in the fleet).
Of course available baggage and dining cars do little for Michigan except to make the axle counts.

The Chargers still seem to be operating regularly on the Hiawathas and Carbondale trains.