Posting r.e. the safety comments from my (passenger) perspective: I totally agree with everyone saying safety should come first.
I previously worked in a job (totally unrelated to the railways) as an intern where I would frequently work 12h+ shifts, often including nighttime work, every other night and every other weekend on call for emergencies. If you ended up working all night and didn't get the chance for sleep, too bad, you were working the following day whether you liked it or not.
Yes, this activity is likely in breach of a number of regulations and rights but it continued regardless. The tipping point came when after a 10 day period of working including getting up in the night, every night for that period, an emergency required an all-nighter on night 11. By this point being totally delirious from sleep deprivation, could not work effectively and the consequences were unfortunately catastrophic.
It's my own experience in this regard which means I extremely strongly defend my right to rest and free time, and the rights of others as well. If you're legally timetabled to have, say, a 12h break between shifts, then no ifs or buts, you're getting that break. If it makes the train an hour or so late, too bad.
Safety is priority.
