It is nice to have MODS and requests for MODS centralised. :)

Has someone been able to develop a MOD that can slow down the time but not the gameplay?

At the moment a year really goes past too quickly.

Is it possible to have the towns and cities distributed farther apart from eachother?

It would be nice to lock-on a train and to enjoy the ride, feel the wind in your hair and smell the smoke from the loco.

As I understand it, the devs will shortly release tools to assist modders, such as a map editor, a scenario editor, etc. But as far as I know, that hasn't happened yet. I think we're likely to see many more mods once that happens.

Is it possible to have the towns and cities distributed farther apart from eachother?

It would be nice to lock-on a train and to enjoy the ride, feel the wind in your hair and smell the smoke from the loco.
To move city postion, you must edit it manually for the time being. (Until scenario editor comes out)
You should have knowledgae about XML file for editing.
Let assume that you want to edit a US East cenarios map.
First , copy City data file to your personal game data directory with same path and file name.
Example)
"<GAME-INSTALL_DIR>\Railroads!\Assets\XML\D:\GAMES\Railroads!\Assets\ XML\_SCENARIOS_\US_East\RRT_Cities_US_East.xml"
==>
My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Railroads!\CustomAssets\XML\_SCENARIOS_\US_East\RR T_Cities_US_East.xml

Then Open the file with text editor.
<City>
<szName>TAG_US_NORTHEAST_NAME_NEW_YORK</szName>
<Type>Metropolis</Type>
<StartX>299</StartX>
<StartY>45</StartY>
<bIsStartLocation>false</bIsStartLocation>
<szLandmark>StatueofLiberty.nif</szLandmark>
<szDefaultTrackSide>SOUTH</szDefaultTrackSide>
<CitySongs>
<CitySong>
................................ (Omited)
</CitySongs>
<Rotation>-134.999344</Rotation>
</City>
<City>
Do you see <StartX>299</StartX>, and <StartY>45</StartY> ?

This is X, Y corrdinate of the New York City in the US East scenarios.
You can move city location by chanaging X,Y coord of this file.