Grand River Transit

[Markster]

They're replacing a system operated by a trained professional with a system that needs to be operated by any member of the public, individually, in series.

Yeah, no way this is going to be slower.

There are plenty of transit systems that use these kinds of fareboxes, and they can work quite fast. There's only so fast that people can file into a bus right now. Even when a driver is able to visually scan passes, and manually punch the button, in a big crowd, the passengers just get held up filtering into the bus.
As you say, it will be faster than the manual use of tickets currently, so I really think that boarding speed will come out in a wash. (Save for the adjustment period, where people will be a little slow, learning the new system)

What are the chances that (for iXpress buses, maybe?) they put one at the front and one by the back door so users can enter and exit by both? (turn the bus into a subway car)

I don't think we'll be seeing this any time soon. GRT is fairly resistant to innovation. Anyway, the major advantage to this is on articulated buses, which we won't have for at least 5 years.

And how will the UW/WLU passes work? Will the WATCARD/ONECARD have to update to have NFC payment tech embedded that students will then have monthly passes loaded on? Or will students just be granted monthly pass products which they can then load onto their easygo card (sold separately)?

Part of the electronic fare card tender was a requirement for support of termly bus passes for the universities. It was one of the things that Presto failed. Presumably there is a solution, and yes, students will be getting an EasyGO card. I haven't seen any specifics though.

(( I note that this will have an interesting effect on students who assumed for their in-town co-op that they'd be able to continue using their student ID for transit. I'm almost certain the Universities will load four months' passes on at a time, not a year. So if you are on co-op you're on your own. Will this increase revenue for monthly passes or decrease ridership? ))

A few years ago, Feds and GRT worked out an arrangement that U-passes were valid for off-terms. (It was coupled with a ~%20 increase in the price of the U-pass). I assume that this deal will continue.