London's Oyster card was introduced for public transport in 2003.
The contactless smartcard was launched by Transport for London as a quicker alternative to paper tickets. Passengers could load travel products such as season tickets or pay-as-you-go credit onto the card and touch it on readers at Underground stations and other participating transport services.
Oyster initially transformed fare collection on the London Underground by reducing the need for paper tickets and enabling quicker entry through station barriers. Its use later expanded across buses, trams, Docklands Light Railway services, London Overground and some National Rail journeys within the London fare system.
A common mix-up is treating Oyster as the same thing as contactless bank-card payment. Contactless travel was introduced later, in 2012, while the Oyster card itself dates from 2003.