* San Francisco–San Jose: 30 minutes; this would require about 100 mph (160 km/h) on average
* San Jose–Los Angeles: 2 hours, 10 minutes; this would require about 200 mph (320 km/h) on average
Which is rather uninspiring compared to traveling by air, and somewhat worse than the Nozomi Shinkansen travelling between Tokyo and Osaka.
The slow leg between SF-SJ reminds me of taking the TGV from Paris to Nice. The part between Marseille and Nice took just as long as from Paris to Marseille.
With all that said though, I would still take the CA HSR once it is built and I am looking forward to its completion.
CAHSR design speed is 10% faster than anything in service in Japan or Europe, and the same as the fastest China trains, excluding maglevs.