The current design, theoretically, will allow a no-stops express to meet the time bogey. Certainly not downtown LA-downtown SF; that'll take some very expensive work to reach terminals in the densest parts of both urban areas at any more than modest, conventional railroad speeds. But probably between, say, San Jose and Burbank; IOW the endpoints of the actual high speed lines being planned, and the entry points to "Bay Area" and "LA Basin."

If somebody at CAHSR tries to call Palmdale the entry point to the LA Basin for purposes of minimally meeting the bogey, I call foul. Under even the best scenarios, that's still more than an hour from downtown LA; Burbank's about 20 minutes even with current diesel-powered trains. Minimum viable product (for actual through service, not as a test track or Amtrak improvement) has to carry high speed as far as Burbank at the south end and San Jose at the north end. The money won't be there to finish that line for many years if not decades.

I think I predicted back when 1A passed that it would take 50 years and around $100B to build the whole line, not to mention the dream system (San Diego and Sacramento extensions, plus other odds n ends). The SJ Valley segment, which should be the easiest and cheapest to build (CAHSR and the contractors kind of shot down that theory), should be running in some fashion at about the 20 year point. That's longer than I'd hoped, but about right for a megaproject under today's conditions. We're not building Interstate Systems or State Water Projects any more, either.