I find the new map a good idea and useful but the font size and colour for station names are not very friendly for older eyes.
I suppose it's just about better than nothing, but on the rare occasions when I pause the game to look, I have to zoom In just to be able to read the station names. Not exactly immersive, is it? What we really need is a comprehensive 2d map like the 12 year old one in TS, with station names, siding names, mile posts, tunnels etc.. Apparently it's too late now or too difficult or both. Should have been done when TSW was first coded. I think I read or heard a while back that it was memory intensive, but with the new versions, shouldn't all those things that were memory constrained now be possible?
The main times I have used it is when passing a station that I am not stopping at and I notice a map or something to collect. I then look at that map to look at the name of the station so later spawn there on foot. But even after zooming in it is very difficult to read.
Yes, that is the useful aspect of it, picking a place to spawn on foot. And I referred to it yesterday when catching a train at Stoughton and riding as a passenger into Boston, because I still don't know the route and stations by heart. Being a passenger once in a while is kind of fun and relaxing because you don't know quite what to expect. We were held up outside BSS for about 5 minutes and, looking out the window, saw several trains go in and out and then we took our turn into the station. Typical rush hour!
