For a pilot, I think it's going pretty well so far. The machines at the LRT stations are nice and quick as you say, although for some reason I can keep my Arc Card in my wallet sleeve to tap with those machine, whereas I must take my card out of my wallet to tap on and off the bus. I'm guessing they're the same machines, so I wonder why the discrepancy is there. Aside from that, my one major complaint is that a number of machines are broken. It started with a couple of scanners at the UofA station which said that rejected the cards, even if some other scanners in that same station accepted those cards. Now more than half of the scanners at the UofA station are affected, as well as many machines at other LRT stations (and I hear some buses as well). At the UofA station, the broken machines are also the one in the most prominent spots, so the vast majority of taps at that station aren't going through right now. I called 311 about it yesterday and they logged my issue, so at least they know about it now!
On another note, the new fare vending machine at Health Sciences has an Arc sign now; here's an up-close shot of what it looks like.
View attachment 353685