John O’Dowd attended the official opening on Monday of the facility, which welcomed its first passengers early on Sunday morning.
The station is set to open in phases, with train services to start later this year.
It is to become the largest integrated transport hub on the island of Ireland, replacing the Europa Bus Centre and the former Great Victoria Street Station.
Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd opens Belfast Grand Central Station
Translink, Northern Ireland’s public transport provider, had received some backlash due to a lack of Irish language signs in the station, with local activists calling on the company to add bilingual displays.
Mr O’Dowd told The Belfast Telegraph: “I’m disappointed we haven’t resolved that matter as yet, but I’m confident we will get it resolved.
“I’m engaging with Translink in regards to that matter and I’m confident we will find a resolution to it.
“The building will be fully open in terms of the plazas and infrastructure outside by April 2025 and I believe we’ll have it resolved before then.”
Translink CEO Chris Conway welcomes impending launch of new Belfast station
The Sinn Fein MLA also said that the new building “is a statement”.
“It’s a statement about the future, to me it sends out a clear signal that Belfast is a modern, European city, and that we as a society are moving forward,” he continued.
“So, its main purpose is obviously to provide transport facilities for both rail and bus, but I think there’s a wider significance than that, not only in Belfast, but across the north.”
Belfast’s new transport hub, Grand Central Station, has opened to the public. [Pacemaker Press]
Translink have not given a set date as to when rail services will be up and running from the new station, with many bus substitutions currently still in place since the beginning of July, for passengers travelling to cities such as Lisburn and Dublin.
Mr O’Dowd believes trains will be functioning from Grand Central “in a number of weeks”.
“We have to go through a number of safety procedures in relation to the trains and they have to be cleared by the Rail [Safety] Authority.
“I don’t think anybody should be overly concerned that they’re not open today. They’ll be open in the next number of weeks and it might have worked out better in terms of having the buses up and running; the station is up and running and in a number of weeks we’ll have both running at the same time. It allows staff as well to prepare for the influx of numbers that will be coming through this building.”
The final report of the All-Island Strategic Rail Review was published this summer, and it has proposed several new routes, including direct links to three airports, restoring a line linking Portadown in Co Armagh with Mullingar in Co Westmeath, and developing a new rail link from Letterkenny in Co Donegal to Derry.
Watch: Sneak preview of huge Belfast Grand Central Station ahead of Sunday opening
When asked if Belfast Grand Central Station was a first step in beginning such plans, he said: “It’s confirmation that the future is about public transport, that we have to facilitate and encourage the public to come out of their private cars and use public transport more often and when they can.
“But, I also have to acknowledge that if you’re living in a rural part of Fermanagh or Tyrone, there’s no point in me saying to someone, ‘use public transport’ – if there is no public transport.
“So, we have to give those facilities to those communities as well, and this is a work in progress.”
The minister said work needs to be done on services across Northern Ireland to ensure, for example, that Londonderry is on an equal footing with Belfast.
“There is planning and investment needed. The plans for that are in place, we’re rolling through that,” he said.
“We have a short, medium and long-term plan. The all-island rail review, as an example, is a long-term plan, but we’re already looking at feasibility studies for a rail connection to Belfast International Airport, from Derry to Dublin to Cork, from Derry to Portadown, and also the Armagh-Portadown line.”
In terms of the cost of the facility, Mr O’Dowd pointed out that it was built during the coronavirus pandemic and there have been extraordinary inflationary increases in terms of building materials.
“That’s part of the reason, but I have also asked my officials to do a review of the project for lessons learned. What lessons do we need to learn from delivering such a major project here in the heart of Belfast? There is already a review going on,” he said.