That’s how I remember it from a distance of 15-20 years; happy to take corrections.
That's as good a summary of WCRM as I've ever seen.
Richard Bowker (who would have known more than most) once said no one knew the whole story.
Some other bits and bobs from my observations:
The North Staffs route had a lot of work and is much better than it was (used to be 85mph max), but no improvements to the slow junctions on the route.
Stafford itself was not fully remodelled, just renewed as was, with the grade separation at Norton Bridge being the game-changer.
Crewe was untouched, Crewe-Manchester never even got TASS.
There was also talk of TASS on the Northampton loop to speed up diversions, but it never happened. There is still a lot of 75mph slow line operation on the WCML.
North of Crewe, Weaver Jn was remodelled and upgraded to 100mph towards Liverpool, and the Fast was relaid at Hartford.
Improvements on the Liverpool branch were minimal and are only just coming now with the resignalling (always the Achilles heel).
Despite many blockades, nothing was touched Acton Grange-Wigan (no TASS/EPS), and the promised 3rd line at Coppull never appeared.
Similarly, Preston and Carlisle were untouched, although Euxton Jn was doubled.
Hardly anything was done north of Carstairs.
Also remember lots of money was also spent on the G&SW and S&C routes to keep traffic off the WCML, most of it nugatory now coal has vanished.
The many rakes of coal hoppers that plied the length of the northern WCML are now, sadly, parked up in Walton Old Jn Sidings at Warrington.
Bushbury-Stafford is the only stretch of the WCML allowing 125mph for non-tilt trains.
And the non-Virgin operators never acquired tilting stock to take advantage of EPS speeds, and thus clog up the Fast lines at 110mph.
Arriva XC even removed tilt from its 221s, negating much of the benefit of the North Staffs upgrade.
All this is going to give the WCP people much food for thought, feeding 350km/h capable HS2 trains into the 110mph northern WCML by 2026.
Despite all the high-tech resignalling there are still too many control points on the WCML (6 through Stockport alone!).
We haven't mentioned Watford and Bletchley, but resignalling these areas was descoped out of WCRM and took another 5 years of disruption to complete.
And no sooner was WCRM "finished" than the spectre of disruption from HS2 preparations began to loom large!