About Us

Dean Carson Sr. was born in Washburn, Wisconsin, in 1895 and later served in World War I before moving to Los Angeles. Following the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, he settled his family in Lynwood, California, where he owned a heavy equipment rental company and a sign painting business.

In 1943, encouraged by his son David Carson and City Councilman Cliff Schorck, Dean applied for and was granted a twenty-five-year franchise to operate a bus route within Lynwood. However, buses were severely rationed during World War II, and the Carsons were not able to obtain their first two buses until November 1945.

Nadeane Carson (Second Generation) the daughter of Dean, proposed a local bus service in Huntington Park. By December 18, 1950 service of Cross Town Lines of Huntington Park began. In 1952, David Carson became vice-president of sales at Crown Coach, a major manufacturer of buses.

From 1954 onward, growth came from acquisition of Southern Cities Transit, Holbrook—Benton Bus Line, Whittier Bus Lines, Sunset Stages, and then by 1959, Dean Carson consolidated his bus companies.

By 1961, Dean Carson was ready to retire, and sold the bus business, Cross Town Suburban Lines to LAMTA (Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority), which ultimately created the greater LA METRO operations we know it today, and many of the Cross Town drivers and mechanics became LAMTA employees.

Shortly after the company was sold David Carson (Second Generation) founded the American International Bus Exchange. AIBE acted as a broker between transit companies wishing to sell older buses and bus operators seeking to save money by buying used equipment. David facilitated the sale of the last of LAMTA’s streetcars to Cairo, Egypt, and its electric trolley buses to Mexico City.

After the Cross Town sale, James worked at LAMTA (which became the Southern California Rapid Transit District in 1964) as a division manager. In 1971, he moved to San Diego Transit to become that agency’s assistant manager. One year later, James relocated to Hawaii and became assistant manager of Honolulu Transit (“The Bus”). By 1972, he had become president of Hawaiian Scenic Tours. In 1975, James returned to the mainland to head the Western Division of ARA Services, owner of Hawaiian Scenic. ARA, operated school and charter buses. In 1977, James and former Cross Town employee William Bourne purchased Douglas Bus Lines which was the employee commuter to the Douglas Aircraft plant in Long Beach. Since the bus line no longer exclusively served Douglas facilities, they renamed it Commuter Bus Lines (CBL).

In March 1986, T.R. Kirkman, who owned stock in the Pacific Trailways bus system, purchased CBL from Bourne and James Carson. Later that year, Dean Carson and Dale Carson, sons of David Carson, purchased the Southern California Division of CBL from Kirkman.

The Lynwood Trolley service soon began, with two trolleys purchased by the city and CBL awarded $217,721 to operate the service. CBL stored and maintained the trolleys at its yard at 11123 Long Beach Boulevard—the same yard where Dean Carson Sr. had started Cross Town Bus Lines nearly forty years earlier.

In 1987, Dale Carson incorporated D/T Carson Enterprises and founded Complete Coach Works in Riverside, California, extending the third generation’s role in bus maintenance, refurbishment, and fleet operations.

By the late 1980s, Dean Carson (Third Generation) and his brother, the sons of David Carson (Second Generation) , started several companies together. In 1990, Lynwood Trolley added two new routes, and two years later a fourth line was added. As the companies grew, so did the sizable transit bus inventory. Through the use of the fleet acquired, and the Carson's expertise in repairs and the rehabbing process the companies provided transportation, once again for the Olympics, this time for the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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Flying during his daily commute, Dean Carson, an experienced single-engine pilot, tragically passed away in 2009.

After Dean Carson’s passing in 2009, the family’s businesses entered a new period of growth under Dale Carson’s leadership. During this time, Elliott Carson helped support operational advancements across the family’s California fleet companies, contributing to work with major organizations including Disneyland, Six Flags, Universal Studios, and the Port Arthur Refinery construction project.

The family’s transportation work also continued in public transit, with partnerships involving transit authorities across the United States and Canada. In 2010, transportation was again provided for the Vancouver Winter Olympics in an “all Carsons on deck” operation, with Elliott Carson, his brothers, and cousins providing on-location support during the Games.

By 2021, Dale Carson sold the companies and retired, closing an important chapter in the third generation’s contribution to the Carson family transit legacy.

Elliott Carson represents the fourth generation of the Carson family in the transit industry. He was first taught to drive a bus by his grandfather, David Carson, and later gained hands-on operational experience through the family’s California fleet companies, learning the business from the ground up across operations, maintenance, and customer support.

In 2020, Elliott founded Spring Bird in Austin, Texas, to carry that legacy forward in a more direct, customer-focused way. Today, Spring Bird supports operators across the United States and Canada through transit bus sales, leasing, and fleet maintenance, with operations connected to both Austin and Los Angeles.

Spring Bird operates without the overhead and complexity of larger legacy organizations, giving customers direct access to experienced leadership, quality inventory, and reliable support from a team that has been doing this for generations.