While it may feel like the first stretch of D.C.’s streetcar network is taking forever to get off the ground, city transportation officials have a much faster timeline for a larger 22-mile network that will crisscross D.C.

According to a Department of Transportation Request for Information dug up by the City Paper this morning, city officials hope that 22 miles of the full 37-mile network will be ready and operational within five to seven years. Those 22 miles would connect the H Street NE line all the way to Georgetown and see a line starting in Anacostia head all the way north to and up Georgia Avenue.

Even more fascinating than the ambitious timeline is how it’ll be funded—mostly privately. While D.C. hopes to get some federal grants and use some capital dollars, the RFI says that D.C. does not plan to issue additional debt to finance the Project,” which is set to cost $1.2 billion to design and construct and $65 million a year to operate. (It will have 50 streetcars in circulation.) China is looking like a potential partner—Mayor Vince Gray is over there now—and would recoup its investment by collecting fares and “ancillary revenue.” (The fares will still be set by the city, though.)

The RFI doesn’t limit itself to streetcars, though—it also includes allowing a private partner to run and expand the Circulator as part of a non-regional bus network. That is estimated to cost $70 million a year.

So why go private, especially after D.C. has sunk so much into the H Street NE segment? Simple—it’s more politically and financially palatable for the city. Also, it’s more efficient— the private-public partnership would provide “greater cost and schedule certainty for the District over the long‐term.”