It may not be known how California's $43 billion high-speed rail line will be financed, but officials hosted the groundbreaking of the northern terminus of the proposed line in San Francisco.

Officials who gathered at the site of the soon-to-be-demolished Transbay Terminal to break ground on the nation's first high-speed rail terminal included Senator Barbara Boxer, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and others.

Officials said the new Transbay Transit Center was expected to serve 45 million passengers annually and house nine transportation systems, including the state's high-speed rail line and bus lines from San Francisco Municipal Railway, AC Transit, SamTrans, Golden Gate Transit and Greyhound.

This first phase of the Transbay Terminal construction could be done by 2017. Rail authority officials said they expect service to begin on the full line from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 2020.