Gov. Charlie Baker told an Oct. 8, 2019 Transportation Committee hearing that "our economy is growing, our population is growing, and the economic activity that dominates our commonwealth is constrained by the limits of our current system." Photo by Sam Doran | State House News Service

Gov. Charlie Baker this morning highlighted steps aimed at improving the state’s public transportation, telling guests at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast that a few years from now, the transit system should be in far better shape than it is now.

“But it will be disruptive and it will require a certain amount of patience,” he said. “I don’t have any patience for this. I would like it to all be here by tomorrow.”

In his speech at the Marriott Copley Place, Baker mentioned plans to bring new subway cars and bi-level commuter rail coaches online and efforts to bring commuter rail service to the South Coast and extend the MBTA’s Green Line into Somerville.

The Republican governor pitched his $18 billion transportation bond bill, encouraging attendees to talk to their legislators about it. Baker said “big, complicated bond bills” often get passed at the very end of the legislative session, and that he’d like to see this bill passed sooner to make its resources available for this construction season.

The House of Representatives is engaged in behind-the-scenes discussions over how to raise significantly more money for transportation infrastructure investments, with projects like a commuter rail connection between Boston and Springfield and an electrified, frequent commuter rail network in Greater Boston under consideration.