I get the impression other works generally get done at the same time as electrification though, such as renewals of track, signalling, etc, as there is little point putting up wires over something that needs to be completely reconfigured in a few years anyway. - Thinking of line speed upgrades on the line to Bolton and the like as an example of that.
Are any works going on to optimise station throats, curves, etc as part of this project? There are a lot of pages, so apologies if it has already been covered.
What impact will that, in conjunction with having electric juice when climbing out of Manchester, have on journey times between Manchester and Leeds? Seems like the 68's+locos can make the trip faster (perhaps more due to stopping patterns than power/weight), but even then, journey times between the two cities aren't that amazing.