TfL has been phasing out (or discouraging, at least) Oyster for a while, in favour of payment with contactless bank cards or Apple Pay.
Problems with Oyster (from TfL’s perspective) include the high cost of administering the system, crowds and queues at stations with people topping up cards, and big liabilities on their balance sheet for balances on old, inactive cards (which never expire!).
The only good reason to have an Oyster card now days is if you have a monthly or annual pass, are a child, or qualify for certain discounts that aren’t available on contactless.
For these cases, it would certainly be nice to have a digital Oyster card, but it’s only a small percentage of TfL customers that fit into these categories.
Thanks. That’s interesting and I guess makes sense. I do have a monthly pass so I use an Oyster card. And I know some people claiming unemployment benefit can get 50% off travel and need an Oyster card. Still it would be nice if I could have a virtual electronic Oyster card in my Apple wallet.