No municipality shall engage in the business of transportation until a majority of the voters thereof, voting at an election as hereinafter in this article provided, shall vote so to do. The election shall be called by the governing body, if there is presented to it a petition signed by at least twenty per cent of the voters of the municipality voting at the last general election therein, requesting that there be presented to the voters of the municipality the question whether the municipality shall engage in the business of transportation as set forth in the petition. The petition shall describe the system of transportation proposed to be operated by the municipality, giving the route thereof and the motive power. Upon receipt of the petition, the governing body shall, or upon its own initiative and without such petition may, pass an ordinance providing for submitting the question of whether the municipality shall engage in the business of transportation as described in the petition, or if the action is upon the initiative of the governing body, in such manner as may be set forth in the ordinance, to the voters of the municipality.