The British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, chose an unflappable, 48-year-old Scot to run the nation's transport system yesterday in a shuffle which also saw the appointment of Britain's first black cabinet minister.
Mr Alistair Darling was offered the post of Transport Secretary and took it a day after Mr Stephen Byers resigned, saying his poor reputation and nickname "liar Byers" were harming the government.
Mr Darling, who has been the Work and Pensions Secretary, takes on what one minister recently called "the worst rail network in Europe", gridlocked roads and an air-traffic control system plagued by problems since it opened in January.
Mr Blair also appointed Britain's first black cabinet minister, Mr Paul Boateng, in a move welcomed by groups lobbying for a greater say for ethnic minorities in the top corridors of power.
Mr Boateng (50), a barrister, was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury from a more junior post in the same department, replacing Mr Andrew Smith, who takes over Mr Darling's job.
Mr Byers's former post - which included transport, local government and the regions - has been split, allowing Mr Darling to focus on transport while the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr John Prescott, takes on the rest.
"The Prime Minister wants to have single-minded focus on delivering improvements to transport," Mr Blair's spokesman said.
Mr Prescott will have his own "Office of the Deputy Prime Minister" encompassing his old and new duties. Mr Blair's spokesman insisted this was not a demotion for Mr Prescott, saying he retained his current responsibilities on the cabinet committees and on climate change, as well as gaining the local and regional government portfolios.
While Mr Blair's mini-shuffle leaves most key senior figures untouched, there was a lot of movement in the lower ranks.
As the reshuffle trickled down, Lord McDonald, former junior transport minister, was made minister for the cabinet office, and Lord Falconer, a close friend and former flatmate of Mr Blair, was made minister in charge of criminal justice at the Home Office.
With levels of street crime spiralling, Mr Blair has pledged to make cutting crime a key focus of his second term in power.
Mr Ben Bradshaw, a junior foreign office minister responsible for the Middle East and Asia, was replaced by Mr Mike O'Brien, a former Home Office minister.
Mr David Miliband, a former head of Mr Blair's policy unit, and Mr Stephen Twigg, a rising star of the Labour government, both become junior education ministers.
Mr Darling is regarded as a close ally of the Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, who himself is seen as notably more cautious than Mr Blair on British membership of the European single currency. But Mr Blair's choice of Mr Darling signals that he is keen to leave behind the controversy courted by Mr Byers. In his parliamentary biography, Mr Darling lists his interests as transport, education, economic policy and the constitution.
By contrast, Mr Byers was beset by widespread doubts about his honesty to Parliament and the public alike, which kept him almost permanently in the headlines. He admitted as he resigned that he "made mistakes" but insisted he was not the liar many newspapers had branded him.
Mr Boateng, the son of an exiled Ghanaian cabinet minister, becomes Britain's first black cabinet minister. Although there have been black or Asian MPs since the 1890s - there were two Indian MPs in Victorian times - none reached government level until 1997, and none reached the cabinet table until now.
Mr Boateng was born in London but educated in Ghana before graduating in law from Bristol University. He faces a tough time ahead as he negotiates the comprehensive spending review, due this summer, and said he wants to be judged on his performance rather than his colour.
"First and foremost I am a cabinet minister," he said. "I am the chief secretary responsible for delivering the government comprehensive spending review - that is my job, that is what it is about.
"My colour is part of me but I do not choose to be defined by my colour. I work for a world in which people are not judged by their colour but by the content of their character. I want to be judged by my work in this position." He learned of his appointment in a phone call from Mr Blair yesterday morning. "I am thrilled to have been given this job," he said.