Southend Council received a lot of money from the government out of the pinch-point fund and subsequently have upgraded 3 major junction on the A127, and plans already in place to improve the final two.
However, my personal opinion is that these minor upgrades will only provide short term capacity (but they'll take what they can get at the moment!). In the long term the A127 needs a major overhaul all the way along. Plus if a new Southend by-pass actually does get built (15 year wait i'm told), the first section will link the Tesco Roundabout (A127) with the Harphouse Roundabout/Warners Bridge at the airport (A1159).
As for the trains, there's nothing left to say...