I have used the HSRP in the past but, currently, I'm using only the monorail, with the CSX monorail stations by Colyn.
I think the main "frustration" with the vanilla monorail is that it appears to fulfill the same functionality of intra-city transportation like the subway and Elevated-rail, just at higher speed. That makes it, well ... not redundant, just somewhat underwhelming.
I would have much rather prefered a full fledge Maglev network implemented similar to the one-way-roads where you would drag the maglev tool in the direction you want it to be, or optionally drag a 2-tile wide "maglev avenue" with both directions paralell to each other.
The Maglev would have a much higher speed to be more directed towards regional/inter-city transportation. That's why I tried the HSRP for awhile but, as the texture quality and HD textures started to improve the game, I've found the HSRP to be lacking behind the rest of the game.
The reason I haven't moved on from the monorail is that it provides a more modern look which I find to be a better fit for dense urban environments like dense downtowns with high-rising buildings along with subways.
For the more rural, suburban, industrail and low-rising apartments and offices the RRW, GLR and the Elevated-rail do the job very well in my opinion.
So my conclusion is, whatever the awesome NAM team decides to do with the monorail, you should consider these 2 main points:
- Modern look suited for dense urban environment;
- Drive the network towards regional/inter-city transportation.
Just my 2 cents.
