Hi Stu,
As it stands, the only time the create a route link goes away is when you are viewing an actual route or in the middle of creating one. At that point if you hit the "Cancel" button in the control box in the top right corner of the map, it will take you back to the route list view and allow you to create one. Is it this last part you are talking about when you are looking for a create button?
We currently have two "modes" - route list mode where you are exploring the map to find routes and route editing mode when you are creating a new route or editing an existing one. We don't have a route view mode where you can see a route without editing it when "create a route" might show.
Does this make sense?