The RMT is planning railway strikes on July 27 and ASLEF on July 30 ©Getty Images

More than 200 additional buses and coaches are among Transport for West Midlands' contingency plans for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, amid the potential for railway strikes before and during competition.

Members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) have voted in favour of a 24-hour strike on July 27, the day before the Opening Ceremony.

A strike is also planned by Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) train drivers from eight companies including West Midlands Trains on July 30, the second day of competition.

The RMT's members are striking in a dispute over job security, pay and working conditions, and ASLEF's members because "train companies failed to make a pay offer to keep pace with the increase in the cost of living".

The BBC has reported that Transport for West Midlands, which is based in Birmingham and coordinates transport services in the West Midlands metropolitan county, plans to provide alternatives to rail transport where the strikes coincide with Birmingham 2022.

This includes 50 coaches to Birmingham and the West Midlands from across England, 150 free-to-use shuttle busses and 60,000 park and ride spaces.

Spectators, staff and volunteers will also be able to use accessible buses under the plans.

Public transport features heavily in organisers' plans for the Games, with spectators' tickets including access within the West Midlands area for the relevant day of competition.

Public transport features heavily in organisers' plans for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games ©Getty Images
Public transport features heavily in organisers' plans for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games ©Getty Images

It also serves as the "primary solution for travel to the venues" for the media, which Birmingham 2022 says represents a "sustainable approach".

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street of the Conservative Party wrote on Twitter that he believed that "it is deeply disappointing and frankly unnecessary for rail workers to decide to disrupt the Commonwealth Games in this way".

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has said that "strike action is the only course open to us".

"The public who will be inconvenienced by our strike action need to understand that it is the Government's shackling of Network Rail and the TOCs [train operating companies] that means the rail network will be shut down for 24 hours," Lynch said.

The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games are set to run from July 28 to August 8.

Britain last staged the Games in the Scottish city of Glasgow in 2014, with Manchester 2002 the last time they were held in England.